Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - Idolatry Introduction and Details

Idolatry Introduction and Details

Introduction

Idolatry usually refers to the worship of any kind of idol, image, or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic god. Idolatry is the extremity of a person's belief in a symbol or object of faith.

Idolatry is an important part of the spiritual life of today's youth. The youth, mainly middle school students, take the stars as their idols; stargazers are extremely fond of and enthusiastic about the worship of their idols in their hearts, some even to the extent of fanaticism, obsession, and fascination, which often leads to certain radical events and negative consequences, causing concern among parents, teachers, and the society.

Origins

There are some changes or things that dominate and harm people's lives due to factors such as irresistibility; there are some characters that influence people's behavior with their extraordinary deeds. From the mysterious religion to the unpredictable politics, from the great heroes to make a difference in the star character, ...... they have survived and are surviving in people's surroundings, and may even be the individual self, melting into people's state of being and thinking consciousness in the effect. People give these changes, things or characters the "idol" position.

The worship of idols seems to have originated after the emergence of human ideology, and is related to the fear and worship of mysterious powers and the reverence for myths and heroes. From totems and mythological figures in ancient times to the veneration of ancestors, saints, heroes, etc., idols have existed in the form of quantitative changes throughout human history, with occasional qualitative changes at some point. Idol, "Xinhua Dictionary" has two interpretations: a kind of sculpture for people to worship, worship, a metaphor for the human mind with some kind of mysterious power of the symbols; a kind of uncriticized and blindly to worship the object. Specifically refers to a traditional belief or ideal. It can be seen that the idol has both materiality and spirituality, with inseparable unity of opposites. Materiality means that it has existed objectively in the form of materialization, phenomenon or form, while spirituality means that it has been endowed with a certain mysterious power after its state of existence and extension, so that it has caused other individuals to believe in it and worship it, and has been continuously given new meanings. People's worship of idols, one of the irresistible phenomenon of confusion, such as the ancient times of mankind on the wind and rain, thunder and lightning and other magical natural phenomena of curiosity, that there is some kind of mysterious power in the netherworld dominates all of this, due to fear and feel strange and other psychological sensations and faith worship; and then on the soul (the devil) whether the existence of the confusion and thinking, modern science is trying to use the principle of electromagnetic waves to explain the soul (the devil) phenomenon. (Devil) phenomenon, but people still can not reveal whether it exists objectively, so only in the sense of imagination to agree on the objective existence of it, etc.; Second, the situation of thought of the *** through the sense of homosexuality, is the self-individual comparison of another dimension of the way of life, the first to the existence of the ideal form, and then practice the ideal, for example, on the rise of the deeds of political figures, entertainment stars "success" of the sense of homosexuality, the other individuals by virtue of their own Endowment conditions, personal efforts and objective history, social conditions and other factors *** with the role of other individuals to realize the dream and be known, so the self also because of the pursuit of certain material benefits and spiritual enjoyment and such people have *** commonality, empathy to believe and emulate, the formation of worship. And so on.

Substance

The essence of idolatry seems to be the superstitious belief in the psychological support of the self and the alternative carrier of behavior, and the extreme belief in the symbols and objects of faith. It is only a concrete and subtle ultimate of beliefs and ideals for the use of the "I", who gives certain meanings to the "other", and then believes and chooses to emulate them in the way of the ego. If critique is integrated, the meaning of the idol is already self-destructive in terms of its mechanism of meaning. Idolatry is ultimately self-destructive ...... "Idolatry" is a kind of instinct and a natural expansion of human nature, but when this instinct and expansion choose to go to any lengths due to external factors, human nature will be subverted in the dust of indulgence. When the idol worship from the role model and model, into their own life must be seen not blind state, worshipers of human nature will breed "indulge themselves", "I do what I want", "must be so" desire to, and ultimately fell into the pursuit of idols, escaping from reality, the loss of the self of the psychedelic state.

Meaning

People can be without idols, but not without faith and ideals. To a large extent, faith and ideals can be said to have meaning for their own existence and development, is the "pursuit of the indestructible lighthouse". If people do not have faith and ideals, what is the difference between them and the walking dead? Here also for the "faith" gives the meaning of "degree", too much tends to idolatry, not as much as the confusion and lost, too much and not as much may not be the best choice. Although the appearance of faith is different, faith may give birth to ideals from a certain dimension, sparkling with the light of infinite possibilities. Idolatry belongs to the category of belief in the aberration, idolatry has developed to the edge of the extreme, for example, people are familiar with the phenomenon of "stargazers" is the development of idolatry to the extreme a manifestation of blind crazy worship; decadent people, by the pressure of survival and tension to contribute to the life of the bewilderment, the so-called "deviation from the scriptures," behavior, degradation and self-sabotage, seems to lose faith and ideals, in fact, the potential beliefs of the decadent people may be the best choice. The potential faith of the decadent people may be the decadence and bewilderment itself; while the faith of the conceited people and the enlightened ones is the possible self ...... Faith and ideals are also constantly being built, constructed and perfected, and the choices vary from person to person, which is freedom in the sense of the human nature. However, the fullness of the self as a tough fruit, drawing on the knowledge, experience and wisdom passed down from generation to generation of human beings, to establish a noble life beliefs and ideals, so that their own existence is no longer as sad as the corpse of the lost beliefs and ideals, and to seek the so-called "worthwhile meaning of existence" may also be a choice ......

Drawbacks

1. 1. Blind worship. Some kids never ask why they worship their idols, they just think they're pretty and can blindly flock to them.

2. Money worship. Most idols are spending money like water, and even more so in the youth idol dramas they portray, so-and-so noble school, a group of playboys, beautiful appearance, accompanied by a famous car, surrounded by classmates are afraid of violence, and so on. These are the unified background of these idol dramas.

3. Focus on appearance, not culture. People seldom see that the idol has a high level of literary or professional knowledge, people just worship him also only see his appearance.

4. Loss of self. In this world, every person is special, not completely two people should be impossible to be the same, which is the source of the world's rich and colorful. If a person worships and imitates those youthful idols, he or she may abandon the self, and the world may only be full of idols without a real ordinary person with a self.

Psychological reasons

Nowadays, the idols that young people worship change very quickly, but in every round of worship, they are so fanatical. Why is it that the idol life of the star does not last long, but the vitality of the phenomenon of idolatry is as tenacious as it is? From a psychological point of view, there are three main reasons why teenagers worship idols.

First of all, the teenagers who are chasing after the stars are trying to find their own selves. When they are early or late through childhood, the face of the world, often feel at a loss: "Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?" This inner confusion is due to the fact that they have not established a stable self-image in their hearts, which is called "self-identity". At this time, they begin to think about the meaning of the self, and they are in urgent need of a visible and tangible living image as the representative of the self. They look for those who have their own admirable characteristics among public figures, and so the stars appear. If a star can perform admirably enough for them to admire, he or she becomes an idol to be worshipped. From this point of view the idol is the spokesman of the worshipper, the ideal self of the worshipper, and the future in the worshipper's mind.

Secondly, idols are also substitutes for parents in the minds of teenagers. Teenagers have made rapid physical development, but their psychological development is far behind. As a result of their physiological development, they think they have grown up, want to be on their own, and desire to be free from parental control. However, their limited life experience makes it impossible for them to do without the help of their parents, and this contradictory situation makes them feel very distressed. Therefore, they choose to worship idols who possess ability, status and independence, hoping to realize their independence through idolatry. In a sense, this is nothing more than making the idol a substitute for the parents and letting the idol exercise parental control over them.

Again, idolatry is a means for teenagers to integrate into their own groups. Some groupies are drawn into idolatry to stay in line with their peers, and they are second-rate groupies by comparison. They are seeking to make themselves belong, to let themselves and others know that he belongs to that group. So they need to know the birthdays, horoscopes, and hobbies of the stars everyone is talking about.

Cases

A 16-year-old girl in Liaoning committed suicide because her mother didn't buy her idol Leslie Cheung's CDs; a 17-year-old high school student in Zhejiang took poison and killed herself because she didn't have the money to see her idol, Zhao Wei; a 13-year-old girl in Sichuan left home alone and her whereabouts were unknown after she watched Meteor Garden eight times in a row; a female fan in Wuhan jumped into the river for Nicholas Tse to find her death; and 17-year-old paralyzed fan Zhou Feng for Jay Chou traveled to six provinces, and finally swallowed 30 sleeping pills; Lanzhou crazy star chaser Yang Lijuan for chasing Andy Lau unsuccessful to cause his father to jump into the sea to death ......

How to deal with

The current information dissemination and social life style of the great changes in the young people's ideological concepts, values and behavioral style of the impact is increasingly profound, the youth's cultural needs are increasingly diversified, to continue to use new forms of culture to influence the guidance of the youth's choice of idol. It is necessary to lead the fashionable pursuit of youth through the development of healthy, beneficial and energetic youth culture. With the participation and creation of youth, the hundred gardens of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics can be made more colorful. People need to make the following countermeasures:

(a) Improve the status quo of role model education in China

(b) Improve and strengthen moral education in schools, and scientifically guide the idolatry of young people

(c) Enhance the management and construction of the cultural market, and provide a positive and healthy spiritual environment for young people to grow up

Church Explanation Concepts

Idolatry idolatry is a religious practice in which a false god is believed to be present only in its statue, and is therefore honored divinely.

Biblical Interpretation

(1) The Old Testament strictly forbids idolatry. Yahweh was a jealous God (Exod. 25:5; Is. 30:27), and he could not tolerate other gods besides him (Exod. 32:1-10; Deut. 4:16-18; Is. 4:21-29; Is. 4:6-20). Yet the Israelites repeatedly committed the sin of idolatry by worshipping the gods of Kenacham and Misopotamia. Earlier, the king of Salomon had preceded the worship of other gods by taking a foreign woman as his wife. After the North-South split, Jahalobekhan built an altar to the golden calf in Dan and Bethel, officially sanctioning idolatry; later, King Ahab of Israel built a temple to Baal in Samaria. By the time of the reforms of Hizkiah and King Josiah, idolatry had become unmanageable in all Jerusalem. The prophets railed against it, and idolatry was described as an unfaithful or adulterous act against the God of heaven, who alone is the true God of heaven, and there is no other god beside Him. All evil gods only lead people astray; they are only "vanities" (Jer. 2:5) and "non-gods" (Jer. 5:7). The Book of Wisdom suggests that idolatry originated in the erection of statues of the dead, which in time were worshipped (Jer. xiv. 15-17). Later Judaism regarded the Gentile gods as messengers sent by God to rule over the Gentile nations, or else as the embodiment of evil and wicked gods.

(2) In the New Testament, idolatry refers to the worship of gods other than the true God, and the use of statues characterizes the Gentile peoples. Idols are "oodles"; they have no real existence, but are merely self-gratifying things made by sin-filled men (Rom. i. 22-25; 1 Gn. viii. 4-6). In the New Testament, the term idolatry is also sometimes used symbolically to refer to the perverse craving for wealth and other worldly possessions; wealth is sometimes regarded as an obstacle to the service of God, and a man cannot serve God and money (Mal. vi. 24; Phil. iii. 19; I John ii. 15~17).

(3) Old Testament (Hab.) Exod. 20:4; Isa. 2:8,18; New Testament (Hab.) Rom. 1:23;

Faith

Idolatry is contrary to the spirit of the Christian religion, because it deprives God of the supreme sovereignty which belongs to Him. But in the openness to non-Christian religions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) (NAE) and in the spirit of religious conversation of the modern Church's Magisterium, the Christian community has cultivated a more balanced attitude towards idolatry: for those who do not know the true God (in the subjective sense), nor the falsity of the idols, idolatry is not formally criminalized, although it is still (objectively) a misfortune or a sin. ) is still unfortunate or evil because the worshipper believes in a de facto inanimate deity, and also accepts to some extent the distorted values represented by the inanimate deity.

Idolatry in a narrow sense is not common in the Western world, but idolatry in another, broader sense can still be seductive. Anyone who takes a creation other than God to be of supreme value and makes that value the ultimate goal of his life is committing the same error of idolatry in another form (e.g., the worship of money).

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