Misuse of Images

The Bible and Plato both suggest that images are a negative force in society. According to Plato's "theory of forms" images are merely representations of ideas or copies of the actual form that they depict. He seems to view imagess as a waste of time because they are only shadowy reflections of reality and a person would do better to concern himself merely with actual forms and ideas.

In the book of Genesis 1:26-27, God creates man "in his own image." In Exodus 20:4, Moses gives the people of Israel the second commandment, which forbids them to construct any image or representation of...well, anything. God would view this as proud, vain, and also ungrateful. God created man in his own image, but man is not God--he is not the creator. If man were to create anything in his own image it would be like saying he doesn't need God, and is ungrateful for that which God has given him. Worshipping false idols--though God writes it off as "that would piss me off because I'm jealous", it's really the same as creating something in the image of man. It would be like saying "man invented God" if that makes sense.
This commandment is reiterated many times throughout not only the book of Exodus but the rest of the Bible as well. In Exodus 34:13, the people of Israel are commanded to destroy all remnants of the citizens of Canaan once they have moved in an taken their land. This happens again in Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges...etc. The lord drives these people from their land so that the Israelis can live there, but any remnant of the previous culture, of these false idols and images is an affront to the "true God" so they must be destroyed.

Though the biblical version of why images are "bad" is more complicated than that of Plato, it's the same idea: we should only be concerned with the thing itself, rather than waste time with mediocre copies.