Why have people worshipped kings, the Sun and idols?

Judaism

“He burneth the half thereof in the fire; With the half thereof he eateth flesh; He roasteth roast, and is satisfied; … And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; He falleth down unto it and worshippeth, and prayeth unto it, And saith: ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god.’”

Isaiah 44:16–17 · JPS 1917

The Hebrew prophets are sharp about idols. Isaiah describes a man who cuts down a tree, burns half of it to cook his dinner and warm his hands, then carves the rest into a god and prays to it. The point is not that the man is stupid. It is that he has forgotten who gave him the tree, the fire and the bread. A well-known Jewish story says Abraham grew up in his father's idol shop and smashed the idols (Genesis Rabbah 38:13).

Christianity

“Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.”

Romans 1:21–23 · World English Bible (British Edition), public domain

Paul wrote to Christians in Rome, the city of god-emperors. He says that God's power can be seen in what He made, so people have always had a clue (Romans 1:20). The trouble, he says, was not that people did not know. It was that they did not give thanks, and swapped the Creator for images of people and animals.

Islam

“Lo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters.”

Qur'an 6:79 · Pickthall (1930)

The Qur'an says every person is made with fiṭra, a natural readiness to recognise the Creator (30:30). It tells how the young Abraham looked at a bright star, then the Moon, then the Sun, and called each one “my Lord”, until each one set. The story treats nature worship as an honest search that stopped too soon. Abraham's answer was to look past what sets to the One who never does.

Without religion

A non-religious reader may see god-kings as a tool of power, and nature worship as early science: a first attempt to explain the weather and the seasons. Many would agree with the prophets on one thing. No ruler should ever be treated as a god.

Sikhi

“Were he to obtain a great name and praise and renown in the world; If God's look of favour fell not on him, no one would notice him.”

Guru Granth Sahib, ang 2 (Japji, pauri 7) · Max Arthur Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion (1909), public domain

Sikh teaching holds that God is nirankar, without form, yet present in all creation, and it does not use images in worship. Guru Nanak also refused to treat rulers as more than human. In the Japji he says that even the most famous person is nothing without God's favour.

Hindu traditions

Hindus worship God through murtis, sacred images in homes and mandirs. A murti is not thought of as God made of stone. It is consecrated as a place where God's presence is honoured, and a focus for love, so that worshippers may receive darshan, a loving sight of the divine. Many Hindus are hurt when this is called “idol worship”, a label given by outsiders. Some Hindu reformers, such as Dayananda Saraswati in the 1800s, taught worship without images; most Hindus still use them.

Beyond the Abrahamic faiths

Many indigenous peoples honour the land, rivers and animals as gifts, and some speak of a Creator above them. Their elders often describe this as respect and gratitude rather than worship of the river itself. In ancient Greece, the thinker Xenophanes mocked gods made in human shape: if horses could draw, he said, they would draw gods that looked like horses.