u/Active-Ad6531

As the title suggests- I have deeply logical and moral issues fully embracing Christianity as the truth.

For background- I am a 34 yr old man born and raised in the USA but have lived in Canada now for 13 years.

I grew up in a moderately Christian household and in my preteen and early teen years I was deeply firm in my Christianity up until the age 15 and even attended a Christian private school from age 11-14 (I also attended a private Christian preschool as well). So Christianity was a decent sized part of my upbringing. At age 15 I was in limbo and felt put off by the judgement and hypocrisy I witnessed at the Christian school I was attending and began to seek what else was out there. By 16 I was a hardcore atheist and remained that way until about 25 from which I was more or less an atheist leaning agnostic until about age 29-30 at which point I began questioning what else is there to this life and is there anything after. I felt like there must be but was still put off from organized religion. Age 31-33 I on and off tried to bring myself to calling myself a Universalist open minded Christian (and I still wish I could but ill get to why I cant). As of now being 34 I think I have finally settled on calling myself a Perennialist with sympathetic leanings towards Christian Universalism and Secular Humanism both (and ideologies that share values with these 2 trains of thought, hence why I consider myself a Perennialist).

Now for me to formally address my deep issues with fully embracing Christianity that I cant seem to get any real answers for beyond "the bible says so" or "thats just how it is" or "God works in mysterious ways".

1. Eternal hellfire/ punishment is an atrocious school of thought. It is BOTH deeply immoral and illogical to assume eternal punishment for finite "crimes". To think a peaceful buhdist or athiest should burn in hell forever for being born in the wrong place/ not being part of the right religion while a mass murderer who converts to Christianity before dying will be in Heaven is deeply immoral and unacceptable and I dont think my mind can be changed on this. Being part of the right club or born in the right era or continent or else be tortured forever is sadistic and illogical. I will NEVER accept this but some passages in the Bible allude to it depending on how you interpret and many conservative and orthodox christians accept this. I will never consider it. I could in theory accept a place of purification and atoning for REAL crimes like murder and other serious violent offenses or as a place to educate someone on their transgressions (even if they are small like petty theft or lying etc) and to understand why what they did was wrong and to be rehabilitated for a certain amount of time depending on the transgression but thats it. Eternal damnation for not being part of the right club or born in the right place/ time ill never accept that. Period.

2. What constitutes as "sin/crime". I cannot accept how consensual sexual activities between 2 adults whether that be homosexuality or some form of polyamory be seen as morally wrong or worthy of punishment. This is just flat illogical and the only argument I ever hear from Christians is either "the bible says so, so its true!" or "having a family should be EVERYONES goal in any sexual or intimate relationship". I flat out reject arguments from tradition/ authority that lack substantive explanations beyond "because I say so" and I also reject the idea that EVERYONE MUST desire to have a family as the ONLY outcome of sex or intimacy. Its just not logical. Many of the greatest scientists or thinkers or artists didnt have children or get married, I dont see why they should have to choose between having a family or celibacy. Having a family or living a life of abstinence or monogamy should be a choice. The only issue surrounding sexual acts that should be considered is consent and honesty not arbitrary lines drawn in the sand on what consenting adults can or cant do in their own bedroom. One of the big differences between Judaism and Christianity is breaking away from arbitrary traditional rules that serve no practical purpose other than "this is how it is because we say so".

3. What happens to people who lived before Christianity or Judaism? The human species is over 200,000 years old and if you dont accept that we wont be able to have much of a debate. I trust scientists with science and philosophy/ theology with philosophers/ theologians. Surely most humans to live didnt hear of the Abrahamic faiths. Are they simply doomed to hellfire? This is deeply immoral. There are remote tribes and people in 3rd world nations living to this day who have not heard of Christianity or Judaism but otherwise live a life more or less than same as people in western nations in regards to moral values are they simply doomed to eternal suffering for being in the wrong place and being part of the wrong club?

4. For me to accept something it must coincide with observable reality. Im not so bothered by big things like not being able to witness a deity creating the universe or Jesus rising from the dead but things like a literal global flood is deeply unscientific as is a young earth or the denial of evolution. For me I cant simply deny science when it makes faith more complicated to accept. You have to be able to find a way to mold the faith to fit with the actual facts otherwise youre just denying reality for the sake of tradition and dogma.

5. I must admit also that beyond the logical and moral issues I have with confidently calling myself a Christian I am also very put off from the religion from American conservative Christians as they tend to be some of the most hostile, judgmental and backwards people I have ever encountered. Larping as crusaders and cherry picking the Bible to only keep the eternal hellfire and anti gay parts while leaving out the help your neighbors and forgiveness parts (literally the opposite way the bible should be cherry picked if youre going to cherry pick!!!).

I want to close this off with saying I dont hate Christianity, I grew up with it and still hold alot of its values closely and even very badly want to call myself a Chrisitian Universalist but I cant, I have to settle with calling myself a Perennialist because I feel like I am being more honest by doing so. I dont want to flat out lie and say that I think eternal hellfire for asinine things such as being born in the wrong place/time is ok or that sex should ONLY be between a man and a woman for the purpose of having offspring or that everyone born before christianity is doomed and all remote people of earth as well etc.

I remember visiting Japan a few years ago where most of the population is either Buhdist/ Shinto/ Atheist and it was such a clean and well mannered country. People just like you and me and living normal lives like us but they were born in a different place and culture and to me its immoral and illogical to think that is worthy of eternal torture.

***I am not interested in hearing arguments from authority/ tradition and I am also not much interested in hearing Calvinist perspectives because I find Calvinism to be elitist and disgusting thinking people are predestined for eternal hellfire.

***I AM interested in hearing open minded and honest dialogue from Christians/ theists and others interested in pursuing the topic further to maybe flesh out my issues with the faith and potentially move me closer to Christian Universalism rather than simply a Perennialist with Christian Universalist sympathies. There is virtually no chance I accept a form of Christianity that doesnt have some element of universalism as the mere idea of eternal torture is absurd.

I think the most appealing idea from Christianity that I still incorporate into my Perennialism is Apokatastasis. The idea that eventually all things in the universe will be made whole and right seems both logical and moral and bridges the gap between schools of thought like Buhdism with the idea of Nirvana etc.

Anyways, thank you for your time!

I have a (neutered) bombay cat who recently turned 11 years old suddenly as of a few days ago become lethargic and food averse. He had a quick bout of diahrrea for a day and he vomited 1 time (mostly food, with some hair tho). He was hiding a bit too. All of this started after taking him out a few days ago into tha backard to roam supervised (as we have done for many years) and he ate some grass (as he has done many times prior over the years) and later that night he vomited and everything happened after that. (There WAS NOT blood in his stool and there never has been btw!)

He has otherwise been very normal for an 11 year old male cat. He runs around, plays, very talkative, eats his meals, uses the litterbox normally, plays with the other cats, isnt aggressive etc. up until a few days ago he very suddenly fell ill.

I took him to the vet yesterday and they did some blood work to check his kidneys/ liver (the results came back as it not indicating kidney or liver disease). So this pretty much singles it out as one of the following (as far as I can tell):

-IBD

-Gastroenteritis

-Pancreatitis

-GI Lymphoma

There may be other reasons but these are the most likely candidates based on bloodwork and behavioral symptoms.

Since taking my cat to the vet yesterday they prescribed him with some anti nausea medicine and Tylosin for diahrrea as well as food sensitive wet food for cats with IBD. I gave him the anti nausea medicine yesterday and fed him an hour later and he ate all of his new food sensitive food without issue (altho it was a smaller portion than normal still). He even licked his plate clean! He hasnt had any diarrhea or vomiting since before the vet a few days ago and he is drinking water normally. His last stool I saw was firm and normal looking, but a bit smaller due to eating less.

At this point the main issue is he is still eating small portions of food/ is sort of food averse and needs coaxing with churu spread onto his food in order to eat (both dry and wet).

The only food he will enthusiastically eat right now seems to be churu. Like I said tho, he is still eating some dry and wet food but he needs coaxed into doing it with churu on top.

For more context I took him in about a year and a half ago for a growth on his nose that had been slowly growing over the course of maybe 3 years (it never got very big but it was growing) and they diagnosed it as a slow growing tumor that had not metastasized. I had it removed and it has since not grown back. They did xrays, checked bloodwork, checked lymph nodes etc. and nothing showed up (this was early 2025). The only thing they mentioned with his bloodwork was that his creatinine levels were mildly higher than they should be so for that reason I suspected kidney issues when he recently started having symptoms but recent bloodwork rules that out.

I myself have Ankylosing Spondylitis along with IBD and before getting on my biologic medication at the peak of my disease my IBD was absolutely horrifying. I had blood in my stool for nearly 2 months straight, was losing weight and hair, had incontinence and always felt nauseous. I was able to sort of manage it with bland food but biologic cleared everything right up. I was pretty sure I was dying at the time.

Also, we have a slightly younger cat (female russian blue, aged 8) who about 2 years ago was experiencing similar but worse issues with constant diahrea , hiding, yelping horrifyingly when needing to defecate etc. and we ran tests etc. and nothing major showed up so we got her on a special food diet (that she isnt a fan of btw!) and it cleared it up. Its a select protein diet dry and wet food.

His symptoms are nowhere near as troubling as mine were or my other cats were but I guess that doesnt necessarily mean anything without a formal diagnosis.

The only other time my cat acted strangely over the past year was about 4 months ago when I went out of town for 2 weeks to visit family (as I do once or twice per year) and after about 10 days he started refusing food and hiding. Upon my return he did this for a few more days and then was normal again. He would twitch his legs randomly and run to hide and scrunch his back as well. He has done random twitching and overgrooming intermittently since he was young and I suspect twitchy cat syndrome and some sort of separation anxiety for those. It isnt all the time tho and he leads a normal life otherwise.

Anyways- I am just trying to get the opinion of someone who went through something similar or has an informed opinion on what my cat could possibly have!

All feedback and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have a (neutered) bombay cat who recently turned 11 years old suddenly as of a few days ago become lethargic and food averse. He had a quick bout of diahrrea for a day and he vomited 1 time (mostly food, with some hair tho). He was hiding a bit too. All of this started after taking him out a few days ago into tha backard to roam supervised (as we have done for many years) and he ate some grass (as he has done many times prior over the years) and later that night he vomited and everything happened after that. (There WAS NOT blood in his stool and there never has been btw!)

He has otherwise been very normal for an 11 year old male cat. He runs around, plays, very talkative, eats his meals, uses the litterbox normally, plays with the other cats, isnt aggressive etc. up until a few days ago he very suddenly fell ill.

I took him to the vet yesterday and they did some blood work to check his kidneys/ liver (the results came back as it not indicating kidney or liver disease). So this pretty much singles it out as one of the following (as far as I can tell):

-IBD

-Gastroenteritis

-Pancreatitis

-GI Lymphoma

There may be other reasons but these are the most likely candidates based on bloodwork and behavioral symptoms.

Since taking my cat to the vet yesterday they prescribed him with some anti nausea medicine and Tylosin for diahrrea as well as food sensitive wet food for cats with IBD. I gave him the anti nausea medicine yesterday and fed him an hour later and he ate all of his new food sensitive food without issue (altho it was a smaller portion than normal still). He even licked his plate clean! He hasnt had any diarrhea or vomiting since before the vet a few days ago and he is drinking water normally. His last stool I saw was firm and normal looking, but a bit smaller due to eating less.

At this point the main issue is he is still eating small portions of food/ is sort of food averse and needs coaxing with churu spread onto his food in order to eat (both dry and wet).

The only food he will enthusiastically eat right now seems to be churu. Like I said tho, he is still eating some dry and wet food but he needs coaxed into doing it with churu on top.

For more context I took him in about a year and a half ago for a growth on his nose that had been slowly growing over the course of maybe 3 years (it never got very big but it was growing) and they diagnosed it as a slow growing tumor that had not metastasized. I had it removed and it has since not grown back. They did xrays, checked bloodwork, checked lymph nodes etc. and nothing showed up (this was early 2025). The only thing they mentioned with his bloodwork was that his creatinine levels were mildly higher than they should be so for that reason I suspected kidney issues when he recently started having symptoms but recent bloodwork rules that out.

I myself have Ankylosing Spondylitis along with IBD and before getting on my biologic medication at the peak of my disease my IBD was absolutely horrifying. I had blood in my stool for nearly 2 months straight, was losing weight and hair, had incontinence and always felt nauseous. I was able to sort of manage it with bland food but biologic cleared everything right up. I was pretty sure I was dying at the time.

Also, we have a slightly younger cat (female russian blue, aged 8) who about 2 years ago was experiencing similar but worse issues with constant diahrea , hiding, yelping horrifyingly when needing to defecate etc. and we ran tests etc. and nothing major showed up so we got her on a special food diet (that she isnt a fan of btw!) and it cleared it up. Its a select protein diet dry and wet food.

His symptoms are nowhere near as troubling as mine were or my other cats were but I guess that doesnt necessarily mean anything without a formal diagnosis.

The only other time my cat acted strangely over the past year was about 4 months ago when I went out of town for 2 weeks to visit family (as I do once or twice per year) and after about 10 days he started refusing food and hiding. Upon my return he did this for a few more days and then was normal again. He would twitch his legs randomly and run to hide and scrunch his back as well. He has done random twitching and overgrooming intermittently since he was young and I suspect twitchy cat syndrome and some sort of separation anxiety for those. It isnt all the time tho and he leads a normal life otherwise.

Anyways- I am just trying to get the opinion of someone who went through something similar or has an informed opinion on what my cat could possibly have!

All feedback and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!