Is a very good question.
Any man made representation of G!d?
I don't think so.
The Second Commandment — You shall not make for yourself an image — would have been pretty definite had it stopped there, but it didn't, and in its ongoing there is an allowance for wriggle-room.
I would say, as a loose definition, that an idol 'stands in the way of God' whereas an icon 'opens the way to God' — but this is a complex issue as one man's icon is another man's idol!
There are examples in Zen of masters taking a sacred text and using it to light a fire — its the kind of 'outrageous' action than zennies delight in. But it has its point: what matters in the Heart Sutra is the Heart Sutra, not the paper it's written on. Then again, if that was the last copy you just threw on the fire, then you are going to be Mr Popular ...
An eikon, be it a painting, sculpture or script, a piece of music, a poem ... does not necessarily signify an attachment to appearances, but rather offers an outward focus with reference to its interior or transcendent essence.
It's when we start thinking about the former more than the latter, that's when we get into problems.
There's nothing wrong with depicting God as an old man with a beard. In fact, symbolically, there are a number of reasons that make it right ... and I much prefer that to the sad, puppy-dog-like image of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, which just looks like sentimentalism gone overboard to me. But that's me.
We Catholics get a lot of stick for their paintings, statues, rosaries, etc. The Orthodox cop it for icons. But most of the time the critic assumes idolatry, when they're not really sure what idolatry is, or whether it is idolatry at all.
The simple fact is, people need their symbols. Most people can't think in abstracts. My idols are the metaphysical transcendentals; the Absolute, the Infinite, etc., not because they're wrong, but because there's more to God than that.
But disposing of the Divine Name? There's a lot in a name, a lot more than people imagine.
And would you put the body of your dead mother out for the refuse collectors to dispose of?
No. It's all a matter of proportion.
