Augustine wrote in his Confessions a wonderful image of our need for God. He said that every person is created with a God-shaped hole inside of us. No one and no-thing will fill that hole except God. Idols are those things or people that we attempt to fill up that God-shaped hole, be they food, drugs, sex, motorcycles, sports, drinking, knowledge, travel, whatever. But, if you are like me, then you know that idols do not truly fill that hole.
Idolatry is the practice of ascribing absolute value to things of relative worth.
But to make them the standard by which all other values are measured, to make them your masters, to look to them to justify your life and save your soul, this is the sheerest folly. They just aren't up to it. These are some other ways that we in our blindness forget the second commandment. First, I believe our favorite form of idolatry is materialism . This idolatry is so much a part of the society in which we live that we don't even notice it any more, like a fish fails to notice the water.