Science may be of limited use in ascertaining what occured in the past. It (i.e., scientists) certainly does not have ultimate jurisdiction in defining history; God does.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Cordially,
In the long run, it is science and not religion that decides what is read literally and what is not. Prior to Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, the sun literally stopped for Joshua. Nothing about the Biblical text has changed, but it is impossible for an educated person to read this literally.
It took several hundred years to reach this state. It may take a couple hundred more for Darwin, but it will happen.