why do people worship idols for like hindus?

Answer 1

why can't you muslims just accept people for the way they are?

when you came to the UK, no-one was bothered about your life style.

Answer 2

They do not worship the idols. The statues are representations of spiritual beings and Gods. Having an image/statue makes the ceremonies more meaningful and practical. However, people being what they are, statues and images can take on a whole "Holy" life of their own. Don't get up tight about it, it's just the way they choose to worship. Hindus do great parties with wonderful food, join in if you if you are lucky enough to get an invite !

Answer 3

Once a missionary was preaching and among the sweet things he said that if I hit your idol with a stick what could it do? A person in the crowd responded by asking what can your God do if I abuse and not believe in it? The preacher said that you will be punished when you die. The person responded and said so my idol will punish you when you die.

Superstition is a great enemy of man but bigotry is worse. Hindus do not worship idols as God's, they worship God in the form of idols.
Idol-worship is not peculiar to Hinduism. Christians worship the Cross. They have the image of the Cross in their mind. There are so many images in the catholic church. The Muslims keep the image of the Kaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. The people of the whole world, save a few Yogis and Vedantins, are all worshippers of idols. They keep some image or the other in the mind. We can no more think about about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By law of association the mental image calls up the mental idea and vice-versa.
Hence Hindus use an external image for worshiping.
As we find somehow or the other by the laws of our mental constitution we associate the idea of infinity with the blue sky, the ocean so we naturally connect our idea of holiness with the holy cross, the mosque, a church. The Hindus have associated the idea of holiness, purity, truth, omnipresence with external images and forms. But with this difference that some people devote their lives to the idol of the church and never rise higher because to
them religion means intellectual assent to certain doctrines, the religion of Hinduism is centered in realization. Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols etc are only the support of the spiritual childhood.

The scriptures say that external worship is the lowest stage struggling to rise high, mental prayer is the next stage, and the highest stage is when God has been realized.

The Hindu will never call anyones idol or call its worship a sin. It is a necessary stage in life. The child is the father of the man so would it be right for the older man to say that childhood / youth is a sin? If a man can realize his divine self with the help of an image would it be right to call that a sin? Even when man has passed that stage it would not be correct to call it an error. To a Hindu, man does not travel from error to truth, but from truth to truth, lower to higher truth. All religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism mean an attempt of man to grasp and connect with the infinite God. The absolute can only be realized of, or thought of, or stated through the relative and the images, the crosses, the crescents, kaaba, are simply so many symbols-so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for everyone, but those that do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism. "Idol worship" is just the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths. To Hindus all religions lead to the same goal. It is the same light through the glasses of different colors. But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared during his incarnation of Krishna that "I am in every religion as the thread through the string of pearls. Whenever thou seest extraordinary holiness and power raising and purifying humanity know thou that I am there."

There is no expression in Hindu philosophy saying that only the Hindu will be saved and not others.

Each and everyone of us in different ways is an "idol worshiper". As i explained above Christians worship the Cross. They have the image of the Cross in their mind. There are images in the catholic church. The Muslims keep the image of the Kaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. They keep some image or the other in the mind. The mental image also is a form of idol. The difference is not one of kind, but only one of degree. All worshipers, however intellectual they may be, generate a form in the mind and make the mind dwell on that image.Everyone is an idol-worshiper. Pictures, drawings, etc., are only forms of Pratima or the idol. A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a prop or Alambana and a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol.

Even a Vedantin has the symbol OM for fixing the wandering mind. It is not only the pictures or images in stone and in wood, that are idols but dialectics and leaders also become idols.

Let us take pictures / "idols" of our parents / Kaaba / the cross, if v do not worship it then surely u can spit on the "idols", garland them with shoes? Can v make an image of the quran / bible and then spit on it / disrespect it? "Idols" in this case only help the human mind to stay focussed.

Answer 4

From the beginning of time people have always worshiped something. Now a days, if you got nothing else to worship, how about worshiping Kobe?

Answer 5

In most cases the worshipper know that the physical image is not actually the God or aspect of God being worshipped, any more that Christians are actually worshipping the crosses or Crucifixes displayed in their places of worship. Jews have their beautiful scrolls to focus their religious bent, and Muslims have their Qu'ran and the Kaaba and Hajj. Images and symbols and statues of Shiva or Buddha help us take ourselves spiritually closer to the Ultimate Reality they represent.

Answer 6

they are not worshipping idols. Is the cross an idol? They use the statue to focus on. They woship a god or goddess just as you do, they just happen to follow a different one. There statues have signifcance just like the cross.
Gwendlyn

Answer 7

Why do christians have christ up on the cross in alot of churches? same reason hindus have idols in their temples. It makes a god that doesn't exist seem more real. Have you ever noticed when you want to convince yourself of something, you will go over it and over it in your mind. It is the same thing, only visual. The more you see it, the more you will convince yourself. It is a form of self assurance.

Answer 8

which people worship idols for like hindus?

Answer 9

Why not, Hinduism is as valid a religion as any of the others, and lets face it I would rather have a Hindu living next door than a Muslim.

Answer 10

Why do people worship anything, like Christians?

Answer 11

I don't think it is necessary to worship anything or anyone. If there is indeed a god they cannot possibly want or need anything whatsoever from anyone.