Spain (Emperor, Civilization Expanded)

Just finished an emperor difficulty game with Sukitract's Egypt, decided to do a religious domination victory so I chose Spain (I wanna do colonization too) with civilization expanded (I also have that mod on in the previous game). Tried rushing astrology and holy site immediately once that is researched. However, either A: my spawn is bad without my resources and not cross continent, but I get my religion; or B: the continent is just a few turns (like 4-5 turns) away, I built my holy site but get rushed by the AI (screw you Inca, China and Russia)

Should I just switch to a better civ like Arabia, don't care about making your own religion, or just keep rolling until the perfect start?