Debunking the False Notion that Idolaters Don't Worship the Image but The One Portrayed by the Image

I remembered from Catholic apologists who say they don't worship the image but the one portrayed by the image. A Buddhist said he wasn't worshiping the image of Buddha but paying homage to it, or that he was also not worshiping the image of the goddess of mercy, but to the goddess of mercy. Well it's time to actually show that kind of thinking is just stupid because it's stupid.

One might actually go to a local pagan temple, not necessarily a Roman Catholic parish. Some pagan places of worship open for tourists may actually write something like, "PLEASE NO PICTURE TAKING OF THE GOD INSIDE THE TEMPLE OR THE ALTAR AS A BACKGROUND." If they were not worshiping the image but rather the one portrayed by the image, why do they then forbid the tourists from taking pictures of the "god" inside the temple or the altar as a background? Clearly, it openly admits that they have considered their images as their gods.

Another incident I remembered concerning this was that a family panicked when the idols were stolen during a fire. A fire hit the neighborhood, though their house wasn't burned down, they were able to repair the house but they all panicked when the images of the Taoist god of wealth and that of Buddha were stolen. Or in an incident when a little boy broke his parents' Buddha statue, they also tell him, "See what you did to Buddha! He will get mad at you!" suggesting that they actually had revered the Buddha image as if it were Buddha. Or a local trip in the marketplace of idols near a Catholic parish, a Sto. Nino image fell down and broke, a vendor said, "Oh my! Look at what happened to Senor Sto. Nino."

So still what arguments do they have to further defend their idolatry? In fact, this is just proof of why God forbade the use of graven images of worship. It makes God look like as if He were for sale. After all go to a souvenir shop in a pagan temple, you'll probably get an idol costing only 50 dollars or less, or buy one take one of these idols. Clearly, it's plain foolishness but they are too blind to see it. Satan has blinded them from the truth and only God can open their eyes!