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People take drugs until they have used up all the money, sold their house and their cars, lost their jobs, and wind up in jail and basically ruined their lives.
It is as though they feel that doing drugs will get them into heaven and to not do drugs will condemn them to hell and therefore any loss they experience on earth (no matter how great) is insignificant.
That is called idol worship.
At what point does the worship of God become idol worship?
Generally Idolatry can be represented as follows;
Human + brain + idolization/fixating neural circuit + idol concept + physical representation = feel good
1. Thus the worshipping of god via idolatry is
Human + brain + idolization/fixation neural circuit + God concept + physical representation = feel good
God concept = omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, Omni-whatever being.
2. Thus the worshipping of god without idolatry is
Human + brain + idolization/fixation neural circuit + God concept + NO [physical representation] = feel good
3. Thus the worshipping of drugs is
Human + brain + idolization/fixation neural circuit + drug concept + physical drug taking = feel good
From the above one will note the process of idolization or fixation to something, i.e. god, drugs, hero, anything is fundamental the same at the level of the brain circuits of humans.
Thus when Muslims & others condemn those who pray to idols there is no difference in what they do fundamentally. The difference is merely in the form and the levels of abstraction.
Note not everyone can rely on abstraction effectively, therefore to force all Muslims into the abstraction format and model of worshipping do more harm than good for those who are not good at abstraction.
Those who need to worship via idolatry are usually effective because they use a near physical representation to their God concept.
Human + brain + idolization/fixation neural circuit + God concept + physical representation [near image] = feel good
Islam and Pseudo-Idolatry
Islam condemns idolatry but the majority of Muslims are actually not good in comprehending abstraction, thus they have to resort to pseudo-idolatry and rely on directing their attention to other objects which are not near image of their Allah, e.g. Mecca, Kaaba, Holy texts, religion of Islam, etc.
In such a case of pseudo-idolatry, their resultant is compromised.
Human + brain + idolization/fixation neural circuit + God concept + indirect physical representation = feel good is compromised
Therefore many of those who condemn idolatry are actually performing pseudo-idolatry and kicking their own backside.
As for drugs, there is no need for worshipping ... just do the real thing if need to but one need to be wary of the side effects and dangers.
People take drugs until they have used up all the money, sold their house and their cars, lost their jobs, and wind up in jail and basically ruined their lives.
It is as though they feel that doing drugs will get them into heaven and to not do drugs will condemn them to hell and therefore any loss they experience on earth (no matter how great) is insignificant.
That is called idol worship.
At what point does the worship of God become idol worship?
I've never once known anyone that thought doing drugs would get them into heaven. To the contrary, the people I've known that used drugs or were addicted to alcohol often expressed that they wished they could stop because they knew it was bad for them. I've even heard them joke that they were going to "have a kegger in hell".
But I do get what you're saying -- drugs can consume a person's life and cause them to give up everything for the next hit.
People take drugs until they have used up all the money, sold their house and their cars, lost their jobs, and wind up in jail and basically ruined their lives.
It is as though they feel that doing drugs will get them into heaven and to not do drugs will condemn them to hell and therefore any loss they experience on earth (no matter how great) is insignificant.
That is called idol worship.
No, it is called addiction. It is a mental problem, and is significantly mediated by genetics. Most addicts do not have a reasoning process at all, much less one that says drugs will get them into heaven. Mostly, drugs in fact get them out of hell. People self-medicate because of personal pain, anxiety, etc.
Of course there's an element involved where you idolize the drug or the experience of the drug, but that is a symptom, not a cause.
Quote:
Originally Posted by granpa
At what point does the worship of God become idol worship?
In the fundamentalist belief system I grew up in, that is inherently impossible because an idol by definition is a false god or a god-substitute, and god is the only one it is appropriate to worship. Hence, worshipping god cannot be idolatry. The sin of idolatry isn't that the act of worship is wrong, it is that the object of worship is incorrect.
If someone were to be excessively fixated on worshipping god, on doctrine, on spiritual experience, that would be regarded as some kind of distortion of truth / correctness, not an indication that the whole "god thing" is potentially itself in error. That's one of the reasons literalist / fundamentalists types are so obsessed with correct doctrine. They don't want to get it wrong.
It is as though they feel that doing drugs will get them into heaven...
People that do drugs are very beloved by God.*
They want one thing so badly...they are just looking in the wrong place.
* I know this because I have stood in front of a 3 story drug house in Key West;
bums strung out on all 3 pink porches...God pumped His unquenchable compassion through
my being for them.
My Father showed me the profound depth of His Love for these searchers living in such pain...
wanting Him.
I've never once known anyone that thought doing drugs would get them into heaven. To the contrary, the people I've known that used drugs or were addicted to alcohol often expressed that they wished they could stop because they knew it was bad for them. I've even heard them joke that they were going to "have a kegger in hell".
But I do get what you're saying -- drugs can consume a person's life and cause them to give up everything for the next hit.
People take drugs until they have used up all the money, sold their house and their cars, lost their jobs, and wind up in jail and basically ruined their lives.
It is as though they feel that doing drugs will get them into heaven and to not do drugs will condemn them to hell and therefore any loss they experience on earth (no matter how great) is insignificant.
That is called idol worship.
At what point does the worship of God become idol worship?
Simply, when you construct an idol which you think resembles the god within you and then worship it day and night in the hope it will become animated and answer all your questions and grant all your wishes. At this exact point your worship becomes an 'idol worship' and this kind of worship has nothing to do with drugs.
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