Hi Justin!
I don't want to give a religious ruling on why we can't date since I'm not qualified. But, if you think about the how the people in the west date and yet they still have the highest divorce rate in the world, I think that shows that dating doesn't help to produce a good marriage. Also, you could date someone for years but people usually change significantly once you are married and over time as well. Dating can lead to pre-marital sex and also Islam teaches us that any relationship between the sexes, besides a scholarly relationship, is forbidden.
If you try to avoid the situation completely, then you are much less likely to slip into sin. Satan has a way of leading you one tiny step at a time. These steps often appear innocent enough until, before you know it, you are committing a sin.
However, in Islam you can get to know the person that you are thinking of marrying. It simply has to be done in an Islamic fashion (refer to an Imam for this).
Here is a haddith (a saying of our Prophet (pbuh)):
Three men were commanded to go out, they had a sister, there was no one to look after her, so they thought that they should leave her with the worshiper, as he was the most trusted person, they took their sister to the worshiper, he was someone who lived in a monastery and devoted to worship, he said 'awuthubillah' (I seek refuge in Allah) and to get away, he was unmarried and at that time Shaytaan came to him and said she may be left with someone untrustworthy and that he should take care of her.
He told them that they should leave her in a separate house to where he was staying. He would take food, leave it at his door step and then leave, he never met her. Days passed by and Shaytaan said, somebody may see her while she is walking out, so rather than her to come out and collect food, you can leave it at her doorstep, [so you can see how Shaytaan came and he listened, Shaytaan is making it seem that he is doing good], so after a while the worshiper started to take food to the girl, and then he would leave it inside the room, and then he would keep her company, first from behind the door, the relationship builds and it is easier for Shaytaan to lead him, he says you can't talk to her from outside, people will see you, you should go inside, he goes in, they get closer and closer, eventually he commits zina (sex outside of marriage), she becomes mother and has a boy, now when the brothers come back and see that she has a child the worshiper will be in big trouble, only way to put an end to this issue is to kill the baby.
Then Shaytaan says, do you think this woman will keep secret after you killed her own child? He killed her and the baby and buried them inside the house. When the brothers returned they asked about where their sister was, he said she had passed away and pointed to a fake grave. Shaytaan comes to the brothers in a dream and told the brothers that the man is lying and proof is that she is buried in another location, under a rock inside the house.
In the morning the brothers spoke to each other and they all found out that they saw the same dream, there must be some truth in it. So they went and uncovered the grave that the worshiper had told them about and found nothing, so they went to the house and found a rock, they dug beneath it, they found her there along with the child. They went to the worshiper and made him disclose what happened, he told then exactly what had happened, so they took him to the king and were taking him to be executed, while he was being dragged to his execution spot, Shaytaan came to him and said I was the one in communication to you since the whole thing started, I am Shyataan, I can get you out of this trouble if you want, I'm the one who put you in this trouble in the first place, I can get you out of it. The man said what shall I do? Shaytaan said, prostrate to me, and then man did, as soon as he did that, Shaytaan ran away and the man was executed.
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I think this shows that Satan leads you to sin in such a sly way that even this man who devoted his whole life to worship was caught unaware.