Idolatry

There is in the science and in the consciousness of spirituality, something which is essential to understand: Human beings tend to confuse spirituality with the dogmatic theory of worshipping an image, and it could be any image that seems or provokes a feeling of authority, grace, power or divinity. We should remember and recognize that there is only one Creator, and all else, are creatures, and to raise a creature to the position of divinity, is not right. Every image represents a created being, and it does not matter, his position, condition, characteristic; it is a symbol, but not an object to pay homage or to worship. This does not mean, to destroy or to burn the images, this only means that the images have a symbolism and they are human representations and do not have divine nature. An image, as such, is a psychological, social, cultural, reference. The images always have much to contribute, they communicate, transmit information and are very useful and indispensable in many aspects, but in fact, they are not to be worshipped. The reason is very clear, if we worship an image, we are looking at ourselves, as such, as a beings whose objective is to live in a material world and nothing else. This is the reason, that many persons, who look for, or understand or believe, that to communicate with God, is only to look for Him, to solve or help us solve, personal or material or psychological problems. But the spirituality is not like that, it does not confine us, as individuals, but as living source of spirituality, which integrates with the universe. Idolatry, then, makes us lose the perspective of the spiritual meaning of conversion, of the search for compassion, faith and forgiveness and of the mystic communion with God. Most of the times, man, clings to the determinism, to the dependency on an image and this is not the path, since God is spirit and there is no any image in front of Him, neither image, worth to worship. In this same place, where you are reading this information, we use images as means of concentration and abstraction, but not to pay homage or to worship.
Spirituality, is the sensible art of loving, of transforming selfishness, of cultivating Good, and this is only possible, by consciously acting in the path of spiritual Love, where we see life, images and symbols as natural phenomenon of creation, like the recognition of what a creature is, but never as if these were God.
Man, tends to surround himself with a symbolic doctrine, such as maps, psychological elements of reflection and analysis, which are good and needed reference, as could be the pictures of our loved ones, but to worship them, is to be confused and is lack of a complete understanding of  the virtue of the Spirit, who, by the fact of transcending the form, is telling us that spirituality is a stage, truly superior than any symbolism. The spiritual work of man is: To know and to participate in the Love of God, The Creator, and not the creature. When, in front of an image, let's understand that they are evocations, in the same way as when we look at the picture of a deceased, loved one. The images, the statues, are signs but they are neither the end of the path, nor the path itself. This is accomplished through the change that happens in our values and feelings by which, we will know and we will live the true spirituality.

Excerpt of the book, "To Believe or Not Believe"
 by Mr. Oscar Basurto

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