You speak from ignorance. A Hindu who worships God with form does not view the clay idol as a god. Rather, he or she projects their immanent divinity onto the clay sculpture in order to worship God.
Not exactly right - more like this: Since everything is God's energy, a statue or painting depicting Him is not seperate from Him, and for a fully surrendered soul, they see Him in that form. It's not that they project by their own mind. God becomes that form. Kind of like the Orthodox view of icons, as far as I know.