The Folly of Worshiping Images

Again, when they worship things of wood and stone, they do not see that, while they tread underfoot and burn what is no different in any way, they call portions of these same materials gods. What they were using a little while ago, they carve and worship in their folly, not seeing, and not considering at all, that they are worshiping not gods but the carver’s art. For as long as the stone is uncut and the wood unworked, they walk on the one and make frequent use of the other for their own purposes, even for the less honorable ones. But once the artist has given them the proportions of his own skill, and stamped on the material the form of a man or a woman, then, thanking the artist, they begin to worship them as gods, having bought them from the carver for a price. Often, too, the image maker, as though forgetting the work he did himself, prays to what he has produced, and calls gods the things he was just now paring and chipping.

If these things must be admired, it would be better to give the credit to the skill of the workman, and not to honor the products above their producer. For it is not the material that has adorned the art, but the art that has adorned the material and made it a god. It would be far more just, then, for them to worship the artist rather than his products, both because he existed before the gods his art produced, and because they came into being in whatever form he chose to give them. But as it is, they set justice aside, dishonor skill and art, and worship the products of skill and art. And when the man who made them is dead, they honor his works as immortal, though if these did not receive daily care they would surely come to a natural end in time.

Or how could one fail to pity them for this too? Though they see, they worship things that cannot see. Though they hear, they pray to things that cannot hear. Though they were born with life and reason, being human, they call gods things that do not move at all and do not even have life. And strangest of all, they serve as their masters beings that they themselves keep under their own power. Do not imagine that this is merely my own assertion, or that I am slandering them. The proof of all this is there before your eyes, and anyone who wishes can see the like.