Even if theism is a failure, it's still superior to atheism

[R00tKiT]

- and you might say that the point isn't to belittle hardships or comment on toughness...but why, then, are we asked to entertain the possibility that some harmed or disadvantage or otherwise vulnerable person is somehow incapable of finding something other than god to live for?  I know for a fact that's not the case.  Had an uncle with polio.  He lived to fly model planes with his nieces and nephews...and to do shit people said he couldn't or shouldn't..even if it killed him (and scared the living shit out of everyone responsible for him).  It didn't kill him, and neither did polio.  He lived 70 full years..fuller years, I think, than many privileged people. 

It's admirable that some people pursue their passion to the very end, it really is. But, again, you don't seem to realise -or don't care enough to admit- how lucky these people are. If somebody sets up a goal x to achieve in 10 years, they know that many things, anything, can happen within these 10 years before they can fulfill that goal, and may never be able to do so. There is an obvious observation bias in stories and anecdotes of success: we only read the success stories, not the much larger database of failed projects and -relatively- wasted lives. Anyone bragging about anything they achieved is invariably ridiculous, the mere fact that they are alive is due to many lucky events that they're not even aware of. That's why, in Islam, any form of bragging or excessive pride is discouraged, the correct mindset is to attribute that to God's power, or mercy, or benevolence.

So that's the fundamental difference between a religious motive and an earthly motive: an earthly motive is contingent on many things that are simply out of our control... something like a knee injury is enough to end a footballer's career, just like that. A religious motive can be pursued no matter how unfortunate one's condition is, God is always there. Even the mentally ill get a chance to take the "religious test" in the afterlife, according to scripture.

Another fundamental difference : earthly success is an inherently unfair metric of how valuable one's life is, many unfortunate and unpredictable events can lead to failure in just about any endeavor imaginable, even if one tries everything they can. Other-worldly success is fair by definition, you reap what you sow. One may be tempted to say : well how about people who are lucky enough to endorse the "correct" religion,  the answer is simply : no worries, , you won't be punished by a just God for being unlucky.

I think that I've only ever met one person who's love for life and positivity were as intrinsic to their identity - and I fuckin married her before some predatory savage got his mitts all over the good stuff.

Well excellent intiative, I guess. Another anecdote that confirms my initial analysis : the pursuit of women is essentially an act of predation, and a woman's value is, religion aside, reduced to how successful she is at attracting potential predators. 

To put it more bluntly : All men are, by their very nature, sexual predators, but some manage to temper their arousal better than others. 

Walk a beach in the US, you'll see that whether you want to or not.  And believe me, much of it you don't want.  It's a normal, natural setting.  

Bold mine.

You're right, it's a natural, primitive setting. That's why Islam recommended that women cover themselves, so we can finally move on to a higher, more civilized setting.

Looking -intently- at a woman in bikini lights up the ventral striatum in your brain (the part responsible for reward processing) and, unsurprisingly, triggers a dopamine release. In other words, your brain interprets the scene as some "time for your reward, you win" moment, even though you're telling us it's just an innocent, natural moment. And when you get used to staring at women at beaches, your brain eventually creates an association between those scenes and intense feelings of pleasure. Would you like your wife to trigger intense feelings of primal pleasure for other men ? I assume not?