A distinction between spirituality and religion

Unusual Experiences, Reincarnation, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Everyday Life
Dmartin
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

Post by Dmartin »

anthonychipoletti wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 11:31 am Dmartin, as far as other forum members, I never met any members in person.

Giulia, Garry, Andrea and I have communicated often on other social media.

Zen Tzu and I communicated on the old forum often and shared some ideas.

Recently Giulia and I talked about why people are not posting or commenting.

My guess is that people are uncomfortable sharing information on the internet ??
Dmartin: They're sharing their NDE's here on the internet. I think some might be more comfortable seeking answers about those experiences on this format if they could talk mainly just about that instead of others experiences/beliefs.

Dmartin: Also, learning this format isn't that easy. I've learned this much, click the thumb (thank you) in upper right corner first then click the quotation mark next to it. Then you can reply. When finished click submit at bottom. It gets posted right then. Every now and then it will say something at top and it wasn't posted, I clicked submit again and it was posted. And I think I've done a couple replies and not clicked the thumb first and after I click submit it goes away and doesn't get that message at top or posted. It is just gone. So, it is a little tricky, but it does work ok. I think I have the hang of it now. I do wish others would post about their NDE's especially if they have questions about something/s.
Dmartin
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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Dmartin: Anthonychipoletti, I'm sorry. I misinterpreted your words. I thought that was what you are saying your beliefs are. That's all. I didn't think you were personally attacking me, nor was I personally attacking you. Sorry you took it that way.

 
anthonychipoletti wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 11:27 pm Once again, Dmartin, you are making too many assumptions about my beliefs ??

Just because I think your ideas are different than mine does not mean that I think your ideas are wrong ??

Just because you think my ideas are wrong does not mean that I am NOT BELIEVING IN GOD OR JESUS ??

You do not know me and apparently you never will know me because you do not believe in the freedom to believe ??

People can only give what they have and you cannot know me if you imagine that you know me when you don't.

My relationship with God and Jesus is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, you do not know what I believe about anything.

Because you think every statement that I make is an attack on your personal beliefs, you make personal attacks ??

You sound like a spoiled child who says YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME :) You are right, I am not the boss of ANYONE.
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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anthonychipoletti wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:02 am Dmartin, thanks for understanding !! Sorry I was feeling a little stupid for mistaking you for my friend :)

Dmartin: You're welcome. That's ok. No problem :)

Coincidentally, he and a female friend who were on my social media just now found my Facebook account !!

I am hoping they will continue communicating with me. They are from Germany and Netherlands.

Dmartin: That is awesome! That is one thing good about the internet is communicating with people from different countries and making friends with them!
Dmartin wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 11:52 pm Dmartin: Anthonychipoletti, I'm sorry. I misinterpreted your words. I thought that was what you are saying your beliefs are. That's all. I didn't think you were personally attacking me, nor was I personally attacking you. Sorry you took it that way.
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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Dmartin: Thanks for the facebook invite. That's really nice. Sorry, I'm on facebook so I've decided not to accept in case my identity/location becomes public. I just don't want to take the chance. Thanks again :)
anthonychipoletti wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:46 am Dmartin, I would invite you to our Facebook chats however MY FRIENDS ARE HIGHLY IRREVERANT :)

On the other hand, we all could insult each other freely without getting banned from doing that here :)

Anyway, my FB is https://www.facebook.com/anthony.chipoletti.14/

Joyce Alinda is from Netherlands and Ron Schwarz [which means Black in German]

Still not sure if Ron will join us, you will hate him because he wants you to :)

You will love Joyce Alinda, she is so funny and positive as Ron is so serious and negative :)
Dmartin wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:25 am
anthonychipoletti wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:02 am Dmartin, thanks for understanding !! Sorry I was feeling a little stupid for mistaking you for my friend :)

Dmartin: You're welcome. That's ok. No problem :)

Coincidentally, he and a female friend who were on my social media just now found my Facebook account !!

I am hoping they will continue communicating with me. They are from Germany and Netherlands.

Dmartin: That is awesome! That is one thing good about the internet is communicating with people from different countries and making friends with them!

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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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anthonychipoletti wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:31 am Dmartin, for whatever it is worth, I never doubted your relationship with God and Jesus.

I think we often forget that our friends can defend themselves even when we think they can't ??

Dmartin: Ah, you noticed (I really thought that). I didn't just defend myself. I also wound-up taking fault that was the better outcome for you :)
Dmartin wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 11:52 pm Dmartin: Anthonychipoletti, I'm sorry. I misinterpreted your words. I thought that was what you are saying your beliefs are. That's all. I didn't think you were personally attacking me, nor was I personally attacking you. Sorry you took it that way.
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Giulia
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

Post by Giulia »

Dmartin and Tony,

I apologize for not getting the time to read through this whole thread. There are a few issues that I have a problem with:

1) Quotations are supposed to help readers understand what the member who is posting is talking about or responding to. On the other hand, I find that the use of quotations in this thread occasionally makes the exchange confusing and misleading.
2) There are too many repetitive posts. This makes reading difficult and again confusing. I suggest that, if you come back to add a comment, you use your ability to edit your previous post, and create a single post out of 2, 3 or 4.
anthonychipoletti wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:46 am On the other hand, we all could insult each other freely without getting banned from doing that here :)
3) I guess that the statement I have just quoted is a joke. By no means does our Mission Statement allow members to insult each other.

Tony, you wrote to Dmartin (question marks removed to help with clarity):
However you experience understanding through the scriptures is a mystery to me

I do understand the presence of God and the person of Jesus, however to me this is spiritual.

I repeat: NOTHING IN THE HUMAN OR PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE MAKES ANY SENSE TO ME !!

Whatever truth and love we share, whatever our sharing of life with God, to me, this is spiritual.

To me, spirituality has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING PHYSICAL OR ANY HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

I use logic and science to understand humanity and physicality, however they are still nonsense
If I may add my opinion (not judgment, but opinion, based on my personal experience) here:

1) I also find it very difficult to comment on such a complex and important topic, such as Religion and Spirituality, by means of quotations from the Scriptures of one individual religion. I can only assume that this is the sort of language that religion teaches, made of riddles, examples and dogma. I guess that whoever has not deeply researched the Scriptures is bound to have difficulties understanding a post only comprising transcripts from the Scriptures, without an explanation or comment by the writer.

2) I feel that our physical lives are at the core of our Purpose in the here and now and it is important that they do make sense while we are here on the physical plane, trying to talk and converse together. I feel we humans are an Extension of Source Energy, bringing our brains and hearts into this human experience to give Source Energy extra material to exist and the ability to co-create with us.

3) At the same time, I absolutely understand how a Near-Death Experiencer may find it extremely difficult to make sense of physical life, in view of their profound spiritual experience which no doubt opens the mind and impacts individual life much more than any human-made language, such as that of Religion.

All in all, I feel that Religion is a by-product of Spirituality and of our Real Inner Self, something invented in order to try and make sense of what might appear otherwise intangible from the here-and-now perspective. I find that a Near-Death Experience is an extremely challenging event that can impact a person's life forever, and may either turn the Experiencer into a plain religion follower or into the most open-minded version of themselves. Of course, I also understand that things are never in black and white: I feel that open-minded and inquisitive people may be found among religious, spiritual and spiritual religious people. I feel it is the open-minded and inquisitive people who really contribute to co-creating with our Source Energy, which we are all an extension of, and which (at least, as far as I know) Western Society is determined to sabotage through a whole bunch of human-made rules.
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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Dmartin: Anthonychipoletti, thanks for understanding. Yes, there's some criminally insane people out there. It's sad so many people believe nonsense.
anthonychipoletti wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2023 2:05 am Dmartin, I understand the Facebook caution. I try to keep some privacy there but it really is impossible.

I already completely deleted the other, formerly known as twitter, because of criminally insane people.

There was at least $450 fraudulently taken from my online accounts by criminally insane people there.

I hope Elon Musk can eventually secure the new X however he has already lost $200 BILLION dollars !!

Not only from his Twitter purchase I guess :) anyway I understand your wanting to protect your privacy :)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... 00-billion
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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anthonychipoletti wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2023 3:34 am Dmartin, I think I should try to understand and explain my communication with you.

I believe you are completely sincere in your beliefs and I never doubted your sincerity.

Dmartin: Yes, I am. Thank you. I will not lie. I honestly tell the truth.

I cannot really explain to you how frightened I am of your ideas about defining others !!

Dmartin: Oh, who are the others? Maybe I can take away that fright?

I repeat, you are free to define yourself and your experiences without my opinions :)

My opinions have nothing to do with you, or anyone else, I am only able to define me :)

Nothing that you think, say, do, pray for, or otherwise experience can ever define me !!

Dmartin: I don't define myself as my own anymore. That I don't belong to myself anymore. I'm Christ's own, I belong to Him. And Christ is God's own. He belongs to His Father.

I have apparently been a human for about 85 years, NONE of it makes any sense to me.

Dmartin: It's awesome you are almost 85! My Dad would have turned 86 last month. Belonging to Christ makes perfect sense. It's pure love, it's right, it's eternal life, etc.

The only aspect of life that makes sense to me is the spiritual love of the people I love.

That love, to me, has nothing to do with anything human or physical, it is all spiritual.
Dmartin: The reason why spiritual love is all spiritual is because it has belonged to Christ first and He has loved us first. It wouldn't exist without Him. Without Him we can do nothing. With Him we can do anything in spiritual love.
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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anthonychipoletti wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:03 am Dmartin, if we can, please allow our communication here in the forum to start over from now :)

Dmartin: Well, my communication isn't going to change. I doubt yours will either?

I was thinking you were my twitter friend, Ron, and now I know you are not my twitter friend, Ron :)

Dmartin: Yes, I know. Even so your communication isn't going to be different, right? So, I don't think it made any difference.

I was trying to say that you might not understand that ANY other people are free to believe ANYTHING.

Dmartin: Yes, you've said that. I told you I was on that discussion list for over twenty-five years and I communicated with many different beliefs. I understood they were free to do that.

To be honest about your ideas, you seem to be saying there is only one way to believe and no other way.

Dmartin: Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. This is the narrow way to believe on Him no other man has this way. Men/people have their own way/s to believe on Him this is the broad way. So, I know there is more than one way to believe.

This seems very frightening to me because I have had many spiritual experiences from many cultures.

Here are some of my experiences with different cultures: viewtopic.php?t=640

Dmartin: You post a lot of quotes. Sorry I'm not reading them much since the two we discussed about the brain-heart quotes.

Also I am VERY confused about your idea of helping people understand their NDEs or other spirituality.

I think you know by now NO ONE here is going to comment or post very much because of privacy issues.

Dmartin: Yes, I see that. No one is going to post so it doesn't matter what I've said about helping them to understand their NDEs.

If you could say in a few simple sentences with no quotes of any kind, what you can help us understand?

Dmartin: You mean with no references/quotes from Scripture. I've not been posting other kind/s of quotes. If I were to speak or have thoughts apart from Scripture to reply to you there would be nothing I have to help you/few posters understand.


Anthony Chipoletti wrote:
I cannot really explain to you how frightened I am of your ideas about defining others' [BELIEFS] !!
Dmartin wrote:
Dmartin: Oh, who are the others? Maybe I can take away that fright?
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Re: A distinction between spirituality and religion

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Dmartin: Um, this was a strange reply. I didn't say or imply that God is angry. I didn't talk about any unbelievers.
anthonychipoletti wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:43 pm Dmartin, a couple of things :) NO NO NO I have not lived for 85 years :) There is no such thing as a year in my spirit :)

My brain may think it has existed for 85 years, however that is a memory cloud of events which all happened in the now.

Secondly, why I disagree with the idea of the angry God Who hates atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, unbelievers etc.:

This so-called angry God has no sense of humor :) and I am absolutely certain that God has the best sense of humor :)

For example, an atheist who says God is a flying spaghetti monster dies or has a profound NDE, what would God look like?

Yes, God would be a flying spaghetti monster during that atheist's NDE or far death experience while greeting them :)
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