Avraham broke all but one of the idols in Terach's store, left the hammer in the lap of the remaining idol, then feigned innocence to Terach that the remaining idol had smashed the others, to which Terach said, "That's ridiculous, that idol can't move!", to which Avraham replied, "Exactly." Which earned Avraham a trip to Nimrod's fiery furnace -- sold out by his own father! -- and was miraculously saved.
Terach and Nimrod were not idiots. They knew very well that the idols couldn't move. What was Avraham trying to tell his father? And what get Terach so worked up that he was willing to have his son executed?
I worked for a number of years for a national lab (the SSC) that had scientists from all over the world. For some time I carpooled with (among others, there were four of us who took turns making the one hour drive) a lady from India. One morning -- I think she was a bit late and was apologetic -- she mentioned that she has a little idol at home. Every morning she burns incense (which I could smell) to her god and prays to it. It was (by her description) basically a smooth rock. She also told me that she knows there is a Creator, but He is too distant spiritually, so she connects to spirituality via her god.
She was not an idiot. She certainly knew that little rock wasn't walking around doing things. What's going on?
Have you ever opened up your cellphone? (Don't do it; you'll void the warranty.) You won't find gears and pulleys. You'll find some metal frames with little rectangles that look kind of like plastic. You might recognize the battery; but likely not. At the heart is a square that looks a bit like Bakelite on one side and dozens of little gold pins sticking out the other side. That's the so-called SoC (System on a Chip) that runs everything.
Think about it. You can talk to your phone and use it to make flight reservations, get a ride for us, pay bills. I can also control my heating and air-conditioning systems. You can control most of the appliances in your kitchen with them. And a whole host of other things.
I think that's what my fellow scientist thought she was doing. It could very well be that in Terach's time they actually knew how to tap into the spiritual universal web. Probably different gods had different capabilities. We have Samsung and iPhone and Motorola; they had Ba'al and Markulis.
That puts a whole new light on that medrash. Of course they knew that the statues couldn't move, just like our cellphones can't move. But they could control their environment with them. Terach basically said, "There is no app for one god to destroy another." "Exactly," said Avraham, "they have no independent power -- only what is provided to them by the Creator." Terach and Nimrod did not want to interact with the Creator; that required too much commitment. They wanted to become expert enough with the existing (spiritual) technology to provide the masses with easy, user-friendly gods tailor made to their modest needs. Pay bills, have groceries delivered, and provide games for entertainment. Avraham was disrupting their business model and threatened to put them out of business.
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