Anyone using these services in current year is asking for this. If someone is not computer literate and "has" to use these unnecessary services because they can't selfhost or whatever they need to recognize that total exploitation of their data is the cost and it will never, ever change unless you own your data on your own hardware.
I can't reiterate enough how much the government will never ever solve this problem.
"His" main critique is against evolutionary theology which is common amongst reformers and Christian critics. "God was seen this way. Then it changed and he was seen this way. OT God is angry. NT God is compassionate etc" This is not a new idea and has been held by the Orthodox church since it's inception and has been codified for the last 1200-1300 years. The Orthodox view everything consistently through a Christological lens which is why their view of sotieriology etc is so different than what you will get from Protestants or even Roman Catholics.
Fr. Stephen De Youngs book is just a readily consumable encapsulation of ancient arguments, historical findings (such as the Rosetta stones) with his own analyses and contributions. Would you be better off reading the church fathers and primary sources yourself? Possibly but you'd also need to know ancient Greek and Hebrew.
Christians and academics love to argue and I'm not surprised to see that people are critical of the book. I don't think there is any religious commentary that hasn't received criticism.
At any rate I encourage you to look at Orthodox theology more generally. You will find a logical consistency and depth of analysis that the secular world usually says is lacking in the Christian worldview.
Thanks to schismatics there are almost as many different Christian perspectives as there are Christians. Protestantism in particular constantly innovates and separates creating a lot of confusion, strife and (based on your comment) vitriol from those who rightfully interpret what they are hearing as word games and manipulation (no matter how well intentioned).
I encourage you to read Orthodox exegesis of scripture. There is some differing theological opinion in some of the writings of the church fathers but the core tenets of Orthodox Christianity are not up for debate and remain unchanged for at least 1200 years.
I recommend you read "Religion of the Apostles" by Stephen De Young. He explains the common misconceptions of the early Israelite beliefs. The "Gods" are lesser divine beings that were meant to protect the 70 tribes after the Tower of Babel fell. The deities rebelled against God and led the nations astray and were worshipped. The tribe of Israel worshipped the God of "Most high" which is the one true God above all divine beings. So they aren't henotheistic because there is only one God. The term "Gods" was used because they were divine beings but they were created whereas God the Father is not. Everything proceeds from him.
A great podcast that explains evil and suffering is "Whole Counsel of God" with the same guy. In short, suffering is unavoidable because man falls from Eden after sinning and the consequence of sin is death. Making death the consequence is a mercy because man can become sanctified during his life and through death re-enter the kingdom of God. Consequently suffering draws people closer to God than anything else.
I'm not a theologian and wrote this on my phone but that's my quick recap. The book is way more thorough of course.
Uncertainty and risk are ever present and bringing a child into adverse circumstances is scary. I don't have any silver bullets to address the multitude of problems you listed. I do know, however, that if we treat every human life as precious, in utero and out, child and adult, that we will live in a better world. If we live in the truthful acknowledgment of the sanctity of life then we will have to forge a better future for the children that are deserving of their chance in life no matter what hardship awaits them. Our judgment is imperfect and shouldn't dictate whether anyone, particularly an innocent, dies.
I really love Podverse but ended up going back to Pocketcasts for the Android Auto support. They have a bounty out for the feature. I'll switch back if they ever get it.
I know someone with 11 kids and 3 grandkids. He only just received a raise to ~50k which is more than he's made in his entire adult life. I know many people in similar situations including my own family. While it may be a struggle, children can be raised when household income is at or below poverty level. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Money (or lack there of) will never justify killing a child.
At a bare minimum there is adoption. Thousands of couples can't conceive and would love to adopt.
I've used the aforementioned applications for years and have never had issues finding relevant content. I get recommendations from friends, related videos and blogs etc
This is where I differ. I think the algos and video recommendations are manipulative. I simply watch whatever is new from my subscribed channels and occasionally something from the related video section. Even if cared about recommendations there is no way I would value it more than the other benefits.
All that being said check out Libretube. I think it has the recommendations on the homepage.
Forgive me if you already know this but VPNs are just someone else's computer. It's good for preventing your ISP from snooping but you give that visibility to whoever operates the VPN so you're definitely trusting them not to be malicious.
I don't know why anyone is using youtube directly when they can use Newpipe or Freetube. No ads, sponsorblock and even the ability to automatically skip intros, recaps etc On top of that no google account tracking or algorithms.
Edit: Adding "libretube" as well based on some of the replies to this comment.
This is the stupid simple and stable solution. Nextcloud was always giving me grief but Radicale is rock solid