[Matty]

Agree. Even our motivation is a culmination of upbringing, genetics, environment, likelihood of success, natural ability, health, past record of successes and failures, and a million other factors.

The problem is that there are so many billions of factors determining every tiny happening in existence that next to nothing can be predicted, fully explained, or excused. This is where religion comes to the rescue.

This is not to downplay the role of personal initiative or personal responsibility but just to say that personal initiative itself comes from somewhere.