When I was traveling through Thailand from time to time I would see a giant Buddha off the side of the road. It was an aid to worship built by the government of that country. As a Christian I considered it an idol to a false god.
When traveling through the American west I would come upon forests of windmills, built by the government to generate electricity. They are expensive and unreliable but they make Environmentalists feel good—like they are somehow saving the planet, as aburd as that claim is.
It occurred to me that those windmills were just like the Buddha statues—giant idols built by the government to aid the worship of false gods.