The worship of images, idolatry in the broader sense, means allegiance to false values that substitute for God. In the Qur’an, idols are regarded as evil spirits and Satan; those who worship them are therefore enemies of God. The Bible views idols as human artifacts, not as representations of deity.
Hence, idol worship is regarded as a form of materialism, and, conversely, any false reliance on human power or wealth is a form of idolatry. A more spiritual conception of idolatry is to identify it with egoism and human craving, since attachment to these false realities separates us from our true nature.
The biblical story of the golden calf describes the worship of the idol as accompanied by orgiastic rites. In the twentieth century, the idols of nationalism, racism, and especially materialism have captivated millions, with horrible results.
Father Moon explicitly calls materialism modern-day idolatry and regards it as one of God’s biggest “headaches.” His passages on this topic are a contemporary counterpoint to the classic texts.
Lo, Abraham said to his father Azar, “Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people are in manifest error.” Qur’an 6.74
Shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false—being true in faith to Allah, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to God, he is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had swooped down and thrown him to a distant land. Qur’an 22.30-31
Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. Psalm 115.3-8
For many… live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Philippians 3.18-19
“There shall be in you no strange god and you shall not worship a foreign god” [Psalm 81.10]. What is the “foreign god” within a man’s body? It is the evil impulse. Talmud, Shabbat 105b (Judaism)
Have you seen him who makes his desire his god, and God sends him astray purposely, and seals up his hearing and his heart, and sets on his sight a covering? Who, then, will lead him after God [has condemned him]? Will you not then heed? Qur’an 45.23
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and ashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Exodus 32.1-6
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
What is idolatry?
It is to abandon God and worship something else, to revere it more than God.
Today numerous people are worshiping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it… They take as their idols material things; they become slaves of civilization. Hence, they do not know where to find the center of their life.
Without seeking Heaven, they make frantic efforts, yet they do not know what direction to go or what goal to aim for. They are no different than the benighted Israelites in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. (6:31, March 15, 1959)
The world should center on the mind, but instead it is devoted to matter… Look at the reality of education, focused as it is on the needs and values of material civilization. The precious and invisible mind is being neglected for the sake of money that is visible to the eyes. (19:287, March 10, 1968)
First theism appeared; it emerged as a spin-off of history. Next, humanism emerged as a spin-off of history, and then materialism. They each appeared as separate and incompatible ways of thinking. Thus separated, each in turn perished. Human beings consist of body, mind and spirit.
Our body consists of matter, our mind consists of character, and with our spirit, we are to unite with God. When we try to become one with God without considering the material world and human beings, we do not succeed because that way does not fit our nature.
We need God, but we also need human beings and the material world. For this reason, theism, humanism and materialism should not be separate.
We need them all. Therefore, religion in the future should be equipped in all three areas, guiding us to fulfill the whole of human life in all its aspects. Human beings, having a complex culture, are higher than matter.
God is higher than human beings. Therefore, God should govern human beings and all things; that is in keeping with the Principle. In earlier times, when people placed religion at the center of their life, they tended to deny the value of human beings. As a result, humanism emerged, putting human beings at the center and denying the importance of God.
More recently, humanism has declined as people value material over all else. For materialists, money is everything. Nothing is as valuable as money, not even human beings. They see everything in terms of money.
Yet after living materialistic lives, people find that material things are not everything. They begin to re-examine the human being to discover their original nature.
They are faced with the limitations of materialism and realize that they need to recover human beings… They begin asking questions, “What is a human being? Is there something about human beings that needs to be restored? Do we need to once again consider the question of God?”
We are living in a transitional period when these trends are evident. American young people, hippies and yippies, do all sorts of things, and many are in search of religion. (103:226, March 1, 1979)
Sun Myung Moon