How come this guy's books are loaded with every kind of illustrations?

icemilkcoffee:

How come this guy's books are loaded with every kind of illustrations?

Umm, the prohibition on graven images (found in Judaism in Christianity as well) isn't against pictures, it's against sacrilege and idolatry. I believe the Islamic interpretation -- well, at least within some traditions since there are many different schools of religious thought in Islam -- is that you shouldn't illustrate religious themes and you shouldn't worship idols. Islamic art has had pictures for a long time.

Roman Catholics certainly like their graven images. Can't think of so many in Judaism.

It kind of depends on the sect. The Eastern Orthodox Catholics are really into religious icons but they interpret "graven images" to be three-dimensional, so their icons have to be in three-quarter bas relief or flatter.

Pictures? Yes, but no depictions of the human form are permissible for your card carrying Muslim. In Taliban controlled areas, they even spray paint over the stick men on highway and restaurant signs. Pretty enlightened, huh?

That may be true for the most conservative Muslims, but getting back to the original point, I'm not sure that I'd consider a book full of pictures of fossils as depicting the human form.

Moroccan tile designs and Persian rugs are nice.

So are Persian cats.

Read his books online- there are quite a lot of pictures of various people in them.

Also- doesn't the 'graven image' ban include animals too? A lot of gods and goddesses in the ancient times are animal or animalistic.