2nd Commandment - no graven images - really?

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One can "worship" something----like a girl a man is in love with. The man would be foolish to literally worship the girl like she's a god.

Semantics does, in the process of "evolution," do funny things.

For Christians I'd ask, how did Jesus and his disciples pray? Did they use icons and statues?

If they didn't need them I don't see why I would need them. But then icons/statues have never been part of my culture so I feel nothing towards them. They are superfluous to my needs.

When did they start being used? And why?

The images, it seems to me, were used as symbols of something which might seem too abstract for some people.

That's why we have stained glass works of arts which depicts, say, the Crucifixion of Jesus in visual form for populations which were mostly illiterate.

Think about, in Moses' day, the Golden Calf's association with debauchery and immorality----versus the perceived moral uprightness of the new Mosaic/Ten Commandments religion.

I think there's a difference between praying towards a painting and just having a painting as decoration.

I quite like Renoir, but hanging "A girl on a swing" in my house doesn't mean I'm worshipping her or Renoir and I'm not using it as a focus for prayer.

*edited to clarify I'm not actually hanging some poor girl with a swing.

No....it makes "idolatry" all right for Christians and those of other religions----as long as it doesn't promote debauchery and other such moral trespasses.

I am no Christian....so I wouldn't feel inspired to "defend" Christianity in that sense....

Idolatry is idolatry, no matter which religion practices it.

The 'Golden Calf'; the graven image America really worships.

Merrill Lynch used to say that it was "Bullish on America."