An idol is a man made, humanly fabricated things which is, consciously or not taken to be God. Nor should we imagine that idolatry is a curious bit or religious archaeology and that Body in this enlightened times goes in for that short of things nowadays. Quite apart from many cultural idol worshipped by some of our contemporaries-money, sex and the state to mention just a few, there are no few bona fide religious people who scarce seem to realize that the ‘God’ they are worshipping, praying to and reverencing the false god, a figment of their imagination, a “plastic divinity” that enables them to practice their favorite follies, vices and uncommittedness without any disturbance. Such gods are easy to get along with, tailored as they are, to our own specifications, there is no danger of them shaking us out of our accustomed, inactive slumber. Voltaire has said it most aptly, “God made man in his own image and likeness and man returned the compliment.” This kind of religious idolatry is seldom done with “full knowledge and full consent”; indeed, it is mostly done unconsciously. Such deviant and misleading practices must be shown up for what they are so that we can get on with the real job of seeking to know God in all authenticity.
A. The aspirin god: This god functions like our preferred anti-headache pill. Such analogies (the contemporary “opium of the people”) are an indispensible part of everyone’s medicine cabinet. It is good policy to keep a few of such “soothers” handy: who knows when the next migraine or hangover will present itself? In which case, all we have to do is dose our self with appropriate tablets… and promptly forget about them until the next headache! Now god of many would be religious people is just like that. He exists, all right (just as ones aspirin does), within reach and one believes in his efficacious power (just like those wonderful pills). But such people only relate to their god when they have some kind of a spiritual “headache: on”; once the crisis is over he’s forgotten. Of course we should turned to god, as to a reliable friend, for strength, support and inspiration at harrowing times-but assuredly not only at such times demanding immediate solution of our own terms, or else… could this be one of the reasons why, for many people, their prayer life remains so swallow and stagnant? Doesn’t the prayer of such people boil down to nothing more than a ‘shopping list for super market god”? and, when such people find that they are not rendered prompt and efficient service, don’t they threatened to boycott the store?
B. The puppeteer god: This is the deity worshipped by all who have a naïve understanding of Divine providence. They reduce phrases like “God’s will” to the predetermination of our lives down to the last detail. In effect, all the happens in this world is the result of a cleverly-staged puppet show, with god pulling all the strings. This kind of believers does even manage to drive some kind of comfort from this kind of god in times of crisis. “Well, God knows best”, they say. He made this happen and so it must be for our overall good!” there is no doubt that they even gain sort of peace of mind in the face of adversary, through this act of pious resignation. But the price they have to pay for this simplistic solution is an abdication of a good deal of responsibility and active initiative in the world. Besides, all this experts puppetry ends up laying the blame of gang rape, child abuse and the attempted genocide of Hitler’s Nazis (to mention just a few unsavory things) at the door of string-puller. Most religions are committed to both human freedom and divine providence. It is foolish polity ( to say the very least) to claim to uphold both in one forum and then blithely proceed to sacrifice one to save the other in a different context.
C. The policeman god: This is the god of those people whose only reason for not running riot, bullying the weak and terrorizing the powerless is that Big Brother is watching them, keeping a meticulous record of all their doings on planet earth so that he can dish out to them so many hours of penal servitude here to hereafter to make up for their sundry little peccadilloes. But isn’t this representative of a retarded moral consciousness? Surely a mature adult should be able to find something better than a “carrot and stick” approach to restrain him from rape and mayhem? Can’t he recognize that there’s something inherently repulsive in force ably deflowering a helpless maiden- can’t he recognize the utterly dishonorable nature of the deed: how it dehumanizes both the victim and the aggressor? After all, lollipops and beatings may be OK enough when one is trying to get an immature child to study, but it would be laughable (and worse) to come across an grown-up allegedly mature adult who wants the equivalent of a lollipop each time he does his duty, or who needs the threat of punishment to make him behave.
D. Some other gods: One could prolong the list of such idols. There is the Laundromat god, one used by the believer top get his soul “purified” of sin, quite easily, at routine intervals ( confession or deep in holy river).. and so one takes moral obligation rather casually. After all, one doesn’t get too upset about soiling his nice white shirt because a trip to the corner Laundromat will get it back good as new in a jiffy. In a similar manner, the swallow believer nurtures a rather cavalier attitude towards morals behavior: no need to be over scrupulous about faults of various natures: ones “Laundromat God” will clean up his soul in a trice, at no great cost of time money or energy! Then there’s the racist “god”, the one that assures me that only I, and those few others whose religious views happen to coincide with mine, would be saved the rest, a veritable are consigned to eternal perdition, no matter how moral or blameless their live might be. This pernicious view arises from miss understanding of scriptural assurances that one is apart of a “chosen people”. A closer perusal of the relevant texts, however would make it clear that “Devine choice” doesn’t at all imply a rejection of the rest! In fact, such choice, far from allocating to the “elect” privilege denied to others merely shoulders them with the heavy responsibility of proclaiming God’s unconditional love for all people, irrespective of race, sex or creed!
