What does the Jewish religion have against idolatry? After all, does it harm anyone else to sit in the privacy of one’s home and prostrate to idols? A person could be a good, decent, upstanding citizen, so why should it matter to whom or to how many gods a person bows to?
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth (a very inspiring read of “eye bites” that communicate the wisdom of the Torah in short meditations), addressed this question quite eloquently, and I wish I had heard it before becoming religious, since I had the same question. As we look to Ancient history, we can admire the great contributions of the Greeks and the Romans to almost every aspect of human life, including science, philosophy, literature, art, and engineering.
However, the aspect of their societies that, thankfully, had little influence on present society is their attitude toward morality. In fact, there is no word in Ancient Greek for morality. In spite of their great intelligence, the philosophers condoned child sexual abuse, killing grandparents when they were too old to take care of, and other practices which are considered taboo today.
What does this have to do with idolatry? There is a connection between the paganism of ancient societies and their attitude towards morality. In a society with more than one god, there are no absolutes. If the goddess of love is angry at you, no problem, go consult the god of war so you can destroy an entire city and snatch Helen of Troy. Pagan gods can be bribed with sacrifices, cajoled and circumvented when necessary. Not so the G-d of Abraham, who gave to humanity guidelines revealed in the Torah on how to behave and to worship
In addition, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a G-d who speaks to every person and who knows everyone’s name. The pagan gods cared less about the humans who worshipped them, and even Greco-Roman plays depicted these gods as using their faithful servants as pawns. Along with the rise of monotheism came the awareness of the dignity of the individual, since the Torah teaches that every person is important and should be treated with respect, because he or she is created by G-d.