[vladimir998]

I’m not trying to beat you up. I just think that you are making a mistake by creating a straw man with the word “literal”.

I also think the idea of appealing to scientific or historical support for your understanding of Genesis is a mistake simply because those same standards, when applied to other books of the Bible, debunk the divinity and story of Christ and Christianity rather quickly.

[bdeaner]

Not a straw man if I leave the term "literal" open to other possible meanings.

I explicitly wrote (above),

However, there may be other ways to understand the word "literal" that are different than the way I am using it, in this case specifically to mean an objective record of natural science or history void of figurative significance.

I'm not reducing "literal" to only this one meaning, but simply pointing out that this is how I was using the term with regard to Genesis in the context of this discussion. Seven days is not literally seven 24-hour days, not literally seven revolutions of the earth on its axis. It must be read on a different level.

More later...