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This is http://www.essayz.com/a9308011.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %IDOL WORSHIP CREATE COMMAND INJUNCTION PROHIBIT+930801 %MORAL CODE ETHIC SYSTEM LAW LEGAL INTIMATE LOVE 930801 To the extent that our worship of an apprehended creation results in our alienation from God and/or our sisters/brothers in God's Holy Family, to that extent our worship is idolatry. Idolatry is not limited to the worship of physical idols made in the image of what people have thought God looks like. Such images are but representations of what people have thought to be the nature of God. Such images are worshipped as apprehended representations of God. It is idolatry to worship any apprehended representation of God as if the apprehended representation of God is God. Our apprehended representations of God are in part our creations. If we apprehend a representation of God we have played a role in creating our apprehension of the representation of God. All of our perceptions and experiences are in part our creations, especially when our perceptions and experiences are of that which is most mysterious, luminous, holy and sacred to us. To the extent that our worship of an apprehended representation of God results in our alienation from God and/or our brothers/sisters in God's Holy Family, to that extent our worship is idolatry. People have tried to represent the essence of God in images presented through: sculptures, paintings, verbal description, stories, parables, rules, regulations, commandments, prohibitions, judgments, prophesy, scriptures, etc. All such represent at ions of the essence of God in images which we apprehend, are in part human creations---and are not worthy of being worshipped as if they were God. To the extent that our worship of such an image of God results in our alienation from God and/or our sisters/brothers in God's Holy Family, to that extent our worship is idolatry. Often our worship of our best image of God is motivated by a feeling that because of our worship of our best image of God we are closer to the true image of God, closer to the true God, and so in a more favorable position relative to God than are other people. We may feel that we are thus in a better position to exercise control over other people because we are closer to God than are other people. Our idolatry may be motivated by a preoccupation with issues of control. We may feel we should, need to, or must be in control to be acceptable; because our dysfunctional families of origin so taught us. When we cannot control other people as well as we feel that we should be able to control them, or they do not control themselves as we say that they should; we may in frustration and anger resort to legalistic judgmentalism which generates alienation from our sisters/brothers in God's Holy Family, and so from God the Parent of the Holy Family. Alienation is often the tragic consequence of our believing that because we have eaten of the seductively sweet fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we are qualified to pass judgment upon evil people---and so we excommunicate ourselves from them, and them from us. Such worship of our presumed knowledge of good and evil is the idolatry which was forbidden by God in the Garden of Eden. We are idolaters whenever we set up any image of God as eternal and absolute, and pretend that image's power exceeds the power of our most integrative human experiences within our most open and honest intimate relationships---to inform us of God's presence in our lives and of our integrity in God's presence. We are probably guilty of idolatry when we are not free to check the authenticity of our image of God within and through our most open and honest intimate relationships; for then we cannot learn from our mistakes. We are probably guilty of idolatry when we are not free to recognize the tragic alienative consequences of being ultimately concerned with our best image of God, and so we are not concerned enough with how intimate, open and honest we are being with our brothers/sisters in God's Holy Family. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================