This is one of Lucas's most entertaining, defining qualities. A sort of social asymmetry.
Even more than Lacie, I believe Lucas's legendary encounter with the 16 year old Starbucks barista was rooted in this dynamic. The girl offered Lucas the same customer service any Starbucks patron receives: a moment's attention, a polite smile, a bit of professional friendliness. Lucas, thirsty and feeling the unfamiliar warmth of female attention, interpreted this as sexual interest and left her the infamous love quest note.
Lots of dudes do this to some degree. "She looked in my direction, she's into me." "She replied to my DM, she's into me!" But Lucas is on another level, and its part of why he's so exceptional.
This. And I don't like the effect. Atheist Lucas is sort of boring. Like a teen who resents and relies upon his parents, Lucas is eating scraps off a Christian's plate, and sleeping under a Christian's roof. Gratitude being alien to his character, he doubles down on euphoric atheism to protect his ego. But he starts quoting scripture?
His shit about the Bible being a manual for controlling girls is interesting. It reflects Lucas' magical thinking about language. He seems to think that words are spells, that when used in the right combination, can control people and get him what he wants. There's some combination of syllables that will get him some zoomer poonaner. The reason he's single has nothing to do with any of his qualities; rather, he just hasn't used the right words on the right teen. So he keeps trying, and now he's finding inspiration in the Bible of all places.