445. What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? (part 2 continuation)

445. What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? (part 2 continuation)     

(Comp 445 repetition) This commandment forbids: * Polytheism and idolatry, which divinizes creatures, power, money, or even demons. * Superstition which is a departure from the worship due to the true God and which also expresses itself in various forms of divination, magic, sorcery and spiritism. * Irreligion which is evidenced: in tempting God by word or deed; in sacrilege, which profanes sacred persons or sacred things, above all the Eucharist; and in simony, which involves the buying or selling of spiritual things. * Atheism which rejects the existence of God, founded often on a false conception of human autonomy. * Agnosticism which affirms that nothing can be known about God, and involves indifferentism and practical atheism.

“In brief”

(CCC 2139) Tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony are sins of irreligion forbidden by the first commandment. (CCC 2140) Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the first commandment.    

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2113) Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt 6:24). Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" (Cf. Rev 13-14) refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God (Cf. Gal 5:20;  Eph 5:5).  

Reflection

(CCC 2114) Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God" (Origen, Contra Celsum 2, 40: PG 11, 861). [IT CONTINUES]  

(The question: What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? continues)