The Error of Idol Worship

Whatever has had a beginning also has an end. Now whatever has its beginning in time is said to come into being by birth, and whatever comes into being by birth is subject to decay, and its beauty is worn away by the passing of time. How, then, can those whose origin is a birth subject to decay be immortal? Again, the ignorant crowd has come to believe that marriages and the birth of children are usual among the gods. Grant, then, that such offspring are immortal and are continually being born: the race must necessarily multiply beyond all bounds. And if that were so, where is the heaven, or the earth, that could hold so vast and ever-growing a multitude of gods?

And what are we to say of those who describe these heavenly beings as joined in incestuous union with their sister goddesses, and who charge them with adultery and impurity? We declare, further, with full confidence, that the very honors and worship these gods receive from people are accompanied by acts of loose living and debauchery. Once more: the experienced and skillful sculptor forms the idea of his design and finishes his work by the rules of his art. Then, a little while later, as though he had forgotten himself, he makes an idol of his own creation and adores it as an immortal god, while all the time he admits that he himself, the author and maker of the image, is a mortal man.

They even point out the graves and monuments of those they consider immortal, and they give divine honors to the dead. They do not know that what is truly blessed and incorruptible needs no distinction that perishable people can give. For that Being, who is seen by the eye of the mind and grasped by the mind alone, needs to be marked out by no outward form, and allows no figure to represent its character and likeness. But the honors we are speaking of are given to those who have yielded to the power of death. They were once men, and while they lived they dwelt in a mortal body.