Idolatry

==Prehistoric and ancient civilizations==
The earliest so-called [[Venus figurine]]s have been dated to the prehistoric [[Upper Paleolithic]] era (35–40 ka onwards).<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-cave-art-debate-100617099/ | title =The Cave Art Debate | magazine =Smithsonian Magazine | date=March 2012}}</ref> Archaeological evidence from the islands of the [[Aegean Sea]] have yielded Neolithic era [[Cycladic art|Cycladic]] figures from 4th and 3rd millennium BC, idols in ''[[namaste]]'' {{which|date=May 2021}} posture from Indus Valley civilization sites from the 3rd millennium BC, and much older [[petroglyph]]s around the world show humans began producing sophisticated images.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard G. Lesure|title=Interpreting Ancient Figurines: Context, Comparison, and Prehistoric Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyW9RK6l8b0C&pg=PA11 |year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49615-5|pages=11–12}}</ref><ref>National Museum, [http://nationalmuseumindia.gov.in/prodCollections.asp?pid=36&id=1&lk=dp1 Seated Male in Namaskar pose], New Delhi, Government of India;<br />S Kalyanaraman (2007), Indus Script Cipher: Hieroglyphs of Indian Linguistic Area, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-0982897102}}, pages 234–236</ref> However, because of a lack of historic texts describing these, it is unclear what, if any connection with religious beliefs, these figures had,<ref name="Moorey2003p1"/> or whether they had other meaning and uses, even as toys.<ref>S. Diamant (1974), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30103292 A Prehistoric Figurine from Mycenae], The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 69 (1974), pages 103–107</ref><ref>JÜRGEN THIMME (1965), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41319151 DIE RELIGIÖSE BEDEUTUNG DER KYKLADENIDOLE], Antike Kunst, 8. Jahrg., H. 2. (1965), pages 72–86 (in German)</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Colin Beckley|author2=Elspeth Waters|title=Who Holds the Moral High Ground?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eT3XAAAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Societas Imprint Academic|isbn=978-1-84540-103-0|pages=10–11}}</ref>

The earliest historic records confirming cult images are from the ancient Egyptian civilization, thereafter related to the Greek civilization.<ref name="Johnson2010p50">{{cite book|author=Barbara Johnson|title=Moses and Multiculturalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcuKoT9OhrIC&pg=PA50 |year=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26254-6|pages=50–52}}</ref> By the 2nd millennium BC two broad forms of cult image appear, in one images are zoomorphic (god in the image of animal or animal-human fusion) and in another anthropomorphic (god in the image of man).<ref name="Moorey2003p1">{{cite book|author=Peter Roger Stuart Moorey|title=Idols of the People: Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPuDxBBoHEQC&pg=PA1 |year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-726280-1|pages=1–15}}</ref> The former is more commonly found in ancient Egypt influenced beliefs, while the anthropomorphic images are more commonly found in Indo-European cultures.<ref name="Johnson2010p50"/><ref name="Adams1997p44">{{cite book|author=Douglas Q. Adams|title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC |year=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-884964-98-5|pages=44, 125–133, 544–545}}</ref> Symbols of nature, useful animals or feared animals may also be included by both. The [[Stele|stelae]] from 4,000 to 2,500 BC period discovered in France, Ireland through Ukraine, and in Central Asia through South Asia, suggest that the ancient anthropomorphic figures included zoomorphic motifs.<ref name="Adams1997p44"/> In Nordic and Indian subcontinent, bovine (cow, ox, -*gwdus, -*g'ou) motifs or statues, for example, were common.<ref name="Sax2001p48">{{cite book|author=Boria Sax|title=The Mythical Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3Gr7qTarfIC|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-612-5|pages=48–49}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Douglas Q. Adams|title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC |year=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-884964-98-5|pages=124, 129–130, 134, 137–138}}</ref> In Ireland, iconic images included pigs.<ref>{{cite book|author=James Bonwick|title=Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions|url=https://archive.org/details/irishdruidsando01bonwgoog |year=1894| publisher=Griffith, Farran|pages=[https://archive.org/details/irishdruidsando01bonwgoog/page/n243 230]–231}}</ref>

The [[Ancient Egyptian religion]] was polytheistic, with large cult images that were either animals or included animal parts.  Ancient Greek civilization preferred human forms, with idealized proportions, for divine representation.<ref name="Johnson2010p50"/> The Canaanites of West Asia incorporated a golden calf into their pantheon.<ref name=johnson21>{{cite book|author=Barbara Johnson|title=Moses and Multiculturalism |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xcuKoT9OhrIC |year=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26254-6|pages=21–22, 50–51}}</ref>

The ancient philosophy and practices of the Greeks, thereafter Romans, were imbued with polytheistic idolatry.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sylvia Estienne|editor=[[Rubina Raja]] and Jörg Rüpke|title=A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iOldBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA379 |year=2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5000-5|pages=379–384}}</ref><ref name="Urbano2013">{{cite book|author=Arthur P. Urbano|title=The Philosophical Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ8TAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |year=2013|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|isbn=978-0-8132-2162-5|pages=212–213 with footnotes 25–26}}</ref> They debate what is an image and if the use of image is appropriate. To [[Plato]], images can be a remedy or poison to the human experience.<ref name="Dawson2008"/> To [[Aristotle]], states Paul Kugler, an image is an appropriate mental intermediary that "bridges between the inner world of the mind and the outer world of material reality", the image is a vehicle between sensation and reason. Idols are useful psychological catalysts, they reflect sense data and pre-existing inner feelings. They are neither the origins nor the destinations of thought but the intermediary in the human inner journey.<ref name="Dawson2008">{{cite book|author=Paul Kugler|editor1-link=Polly Young-Eisendrath|editor1=Polly Young-Eisendrath |editor2=Terence Dawson|title=The Cambridge Companion to Jung |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5dZUM7ogtQYC&pg=PA78 |year=2008|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-82798-0|pages=78–79}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher Norris|title=New Idols of the Cave: On the Limits of Anti-realism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRfpAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA106 |year=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-5093-0|pages=106–110}}</ref> Fervid opposition to the idolatry of the Greeks and Romans was of [[Early Christianity]] and later Islam, as evidenced by the widespread desecration and defacement of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures that have survived into the modern era.<ref>{{cite book|author=David Sansone|title=Ancient Greek Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVUWDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA275|year=2016|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-119-09814-0|pages=275–276}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sidney H. Griffith|title=The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-p66UJWB3WIC&pg=PA143 |year=2012|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3402-0|pages=143–145}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=King | first=G. R. D. | title=Islam, iconoclasm, and the declaration of doctrine | journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | volume=48 | issue=2 | year=1985 | page=267 | doi=10.1017/s0041977x00033346 | s2cid=162882785 }}</ref>