I just answered that. When it is made with mans hands to supposedly look like a person of which they are praying before or to, and or bowing before... might sum it up.
I am actually thinking you are falling in Love with the Catholic faith.
You have tried so passionetly to resist.
Else you would not spend so much time in study.
Welcome too.
... or say a prayer while standing before it, does this statue thereby become your idol (in the theological sense)?
Could you, for example, kneel at its base and say a prayer before it an not be idolatrous? According to your definition, no.
So there is something lacking or inaccurate in your definition. What might that be?
In my church we have a large copy of an icon (I think it's contemporary or recent) of St. Dominic. Nobody thinks it looks like him, since it portrays an olive complexion and dark hair, while we know Dominic to have been fair with ginger hair.
So, since it wasn't made to look like him, it's not an idol as you defined idol. As far as I know I'm the only person who prays there.
On the other hand we have a barely tolerable statue of Thomas Aquinas which clearly was somebody's best guess at what he looked like -- he was a big guy with a big head -- so that would be an idol?
Or did you mean something more like "stands for" or "represents"?