To me, a rosary is just like a string of beads that people could throw around at Mardi Gras. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about using a "tool" to pray. If you really get down to it, the prayers of the Catholic Church are mere repetition of the same words. God wants heartfelt and sincere prayers and not ones that are mumbled by rote. Matthew 6:5-8 5 “Also, when YOU pray, YOU must not be as the hypocrites; because they like to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the broad ways to be visible to men. Truly I say to YOU, They are having their reward in full. 6 You, however, when you pray, go into your private room and, after shutting your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; then your Father who looks on in secret will repay you. 7 But when praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words. 8 So, do not make yourselves like them, for God YOUR Father knows what things YOU are needing before ever YOU ask him.

An idol is a depiction of the divine. A rosary is a memory guide (moving a bead at the start of each prayer you keep track of how far you have gotten in your 30 "Hail Mary"s. If you looking for a contradiction look at the ceiling in the sistine chapel. There is a picture of God, and THAT is an idol.

Whatever...it's just more religious discrimination by the media. That is, I don't think we'll be seeing a hit TV show called "American Rosary" any time soon. :-)

none. Good point

If I'm not mistaken, a rosary is like an abacus on a string, isn't it? I mean, if you are told to say ten Hail Mary's, the rosary is how you keep track. So you aren't worshipping the rosary, you are using it as a tool to keep track of your worship. Now, whether saying ten Hail Mary's is what God had in mind is another story.

My answer may not be a popular one with some but here it is. While much of what the prayer of the rosary contains is scriptural, the whole second half of the “Hail Mary” and portions of the “Hail, Holy Queen” are blatantly unbiblical. While the first part of the Hail Mary is almost a direct quotation from Luke 1:28, there is no scriptural basis for (1) praying to Mary now, (2) addressing her as “holy” Mary, or (3) calling her “our life” and “our hope.” Is it right to call Mary “holy,” by which the Catholic Church means that Mary never sinned nor had any taint of original sin? The believers in the Bible were called “saints,” which can be interpreted as “set-apart ones” or “holy ones,” but the understanding of Scripture is that the righteousness that believers in Christ have is an imparted righteousness from Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21) and that while in this life, they are not yet sanctified from sin in practice (1 John 1:9-2:1). Jesus is called our Savior repeatedly in Scripture because He saved us from our sin. In Luke 1:47, Mary calls God her “Savior.” Savior from what? A sinless person does not need a Savior. Sinners need a Savior. Mary acknowledged that God was her Savior. Therefore, Mary was acknowledging that she was a sinner. Jesus said that He came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). The Roman Catholic Church claims that Mary was saved from sin differently from everyone else--that she was saved from sin through the immaculate conception (her being conceived free of sin). But is this teaching scriptural? The Roman Catholic Church openly admits that this teaching is not found in Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church states that it worships God alone but that it “venerates” Mary and the saints. What is the difference? A person praying the rosary spends more time calling out to Mary than to God! For every one praise of God in the rosary, there are 10 praises of Mary! That seems a bit lopsided to me. The Bible states that Jesus is our Redeemer (Galatians 3:13; 4:4-5; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 5:9). The “Hail, Holy Queen” calls Mary our “most gracious advocate,” but the Bible calls Jesus our Advocate to the Father (1 John 2:1) and our one Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). The only time in Scripture that the title “Queen of Heaven” is found it is in a negative way (Jeremiah 7:17-19; 44:16-27). The whole of Scripture teaches us to pray to God alone. Never once can you find an example or admonition to pray to anyone else! The only basis for the idea of getting to God through Mary is the biblical story of Mary coming to Jesus to ask for his help at a wedding feast (John 2). But in light of all of the other verses, including Jesus’ own instruction on how we are to pray, is it taking this passage in context to use it to teach that we ought to continue to go through Mary to get to God? Likewise, is it appropriate to call Mary our “life” and “hope”? Again, these are terms that are used of God alone in Scripture, particularly God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-14; Colossians 3:4; 1 Timothy 1:1; Ephesians 2:12; Titus 2:13). Thus, the practice of saying the rosary goes contrary to Scripture in a number of ways. Only God can hear our prayers. Only God can answer our prayers. The Bible nowhere instructs Christians to pray through intermediaries, or to petition saints or Mary (in Heaven) for their prayers. Is the rosary itself an idol? not in the strictest sense. But it is used as a tool with which to pray to and worship Mary and that is idol worship.

none.other than maybe rice. which is to say pointless useless and a general burden to the mainstream of society who don't care.

An idol is an object that people worship. People don't worship the rosary. It is just a tool to assist people with their communications with God. +5

An Idol is a representation of God. As such, it's also generally believed to have supernatural powers of some sort. I don't think anyone believes that prayer on a Rosary is somehow superior to prayer without one. In fact, most serious Christians would insist the opposite. I don't think anyone worships the Rosary as if it were somehow imbibed with the power of God. If they do, then I guess it would become and idol, but for most that's just not the case.

An Idol is a statue or an image of something living or dead that people pray TO. The rosary is a tool for prayer. It exists in every single religion in one form or another... They are mala beads, prayer beads, rosary beads Ect... even the orthodox Jews have a form of prayer bead. Their purpose is to get the ego to relinquish control through mantra or concentrated prayer to confess sins or to release oneself from the bonds of a particular negative things in ones life. As human beings tend to learn, by repetition and the tactile effects of the beads slipping through the fingers is a way of counting the prayers or the mantras as numerology dictates imprinting them onto the psyche as a replacement for the absence of the sin. Buddhist prayer beads have a certain number of beads on them, as do the rosary... Everything we experience has a numerical value attached to it. In the act of counting one can correct the negative energy with a positive thought and a positive numerical value as well... That is why the preist tells you how many times to say this or that. The numerical value is also important to counteract the sin.

I did and THAT IS interesting. Look at this: The World Book Encyclopedia says: “Early forms of praying with a rosary began in Christianity during the Middle Ages, but became widespread only in the 1400’s and 1500’s.” Is the use of the rosary exclusive to Catholicism? No. Diccionario Enciclopédico Hispano-Americano states: “Similar beads are in use in Islamic, Lamaist and Buddhist worship.” Indeed, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Religions notes: “It has been suggested that the Mohammedans derived the Rosary from the Buddhists, and the Christians from the Mohammedans at the time of the Crusades.”

IMO None. No difference between the two at all. Each is a symbol of the god it depicts, and as such it takes the place of that god here on earth.

Did you mean to say "what is the difference between a rosary and an idiot?"

rosary is spelled r-o-s-a-r-y and idol is spelled i-d-o-l. and you can pray without the rosary... it's just a way to pray. not necessary but followed.

One has many moving parts !

While the rosary is SUPPOSED to be used only as a device to help keep count of a cycle of prayers - it too often becomes an idol. Reader's Digest devoted several pages a few years ago to the 'miracles' that were caused by the rosary that some women had had blessed by Mother Theresa who was on a flight with her. I had to laugh really - see, I worked as a medical volunteer for MT back in the Eighties and believe me the rosary she blessed is only one of tens of thousands - so where are all THOSE miracles....

Rosary is used for prayer.....and idols are prayed to.

for me ,as a Bible student, it is adding too and an idol , make no images,statues, PERIOD...it is never mentioned, this thing ,in Old or New Testaments..not necessary....:)justme

A rosary is a string of beads used to count the prayers in the meditation prayer on the life and times of Jesus.

No one prays TO a rosary. It's simply a way to count your prayers, to keep track of them. What on earth made you think it was akin to an idol?

Simple. An idol - is a THING that is worshiped as a deity. The rosary - is a set of "prayer beads".

A rosary is simply an abacus a tool to count how many prayers that you say.