IDOL WORSHIP IN HINDUISM: according to hinduism, the ultimate reward for a soul is to merge with the paramatma (God according to u) ... when u achieve that, sex with virgins, wealth , everthing becomes meaningless ...
That paramatma is defined in Hinduism to be the Holy Trinity - who takes the form of creator, preserver, destroyer - all the avatars : rama, krishna, hanuman - are incarnations of one or other form of that trinity -
so idol worship for that form is nothing but a means of connecting and concentrating with that divine One ... Idol worship is thus a form of associating sanctity with elememts of the world , like in algebra representing untangibles with symbols to make worship and concentration channelised ... its part of a metaphysical thought process to acknowledge the whole creation to be of, by and for God's ...
in Arya Samaj u can follow Rig Veda and worship with or without idols !
So understand the extreme Scientific ethos of Hinduism - its not plain paganism , its scientific
