I never talked about age of the text as being evidence, if for that reason then the Torah is way older! I said that its textual integrity has not changed for all of 1440 years- you put lord of the rings as an unchanged text and I said let it remain unchanged for that long to compare it to the Quran. I also brought up the bible as an example of a book that already had multiple competing versions within 200 years of the death of Jesus. Lord of the Rings is what, 60 years old.
As to altruism. I first came onto this thread with an example likening religions to trade unions.
Like atheists don’t see the point of religion nowadays- modern Millennials now don’t see the point of trade union membership as lots of workers rights are enshrined in law. However, a lot has to be appreciated for their historically setting the scene in the West for these rights to be seen as automatic and intrinsic. People now parrot them without realising the history of how those ideas became widespread. And Countries without active trade union organisations have low wages and minimal workers rights.
So: the social worker or carer coming from a humanist background, not theistic. Humanism is itself an offshoot from Christianity but without God. Open, inclusive, tolerant, and all that jazz. But see it’s caring, pastoral, not seeing humans as only the product of what usefulness they bring. thats from the Christian heritage of UK. That’s how Christianity spread through Europe, you had all these monks taking in the lame, the blind, lepers, disabled newborns left to die outside the village walls. that the pagan Europeans at the time surmised would take up too much resources to care for. But the acts of the early Christians did far more to spread Christianity than any pronouncements from Rome because, attached to those disabled/elderly etc were healthy relatives who loved them. And then people who loved those people.
Islam grew in the same way outside of the Arab world, through remote barren places: the desert, the steppes, the savannah. The Islamic idea of brotherhood, hospitality, warmth brought people together in lonely places where shared rituals helped bridge the anonymity of people they didn’t know.