I’m actually more in the “literalist” camp when it comes to Genesis—at least compared to those who label it ancient folklore. Benedict is right though—it’s not a scientific text.
And I’m with you on the 6 days...since time has been proven by empirical evidence to be relative anyway (what did St. Peter say...”a day of the Lord is like a thousand years”?), it seems crazy to get so hung up on the absolute time it took for Creation to unfold. It took what it took depending on how you measure.
I do think that placing Adam in creation/archaeological time is the tough part. Here I think is where the 6000 years ago comes in—and judging by the geographical clues in Genesis, seems to me that we’re looking at a Neolithic Adam in the Sumerian plain. Who married Cain, and who did he fear would kill him, and how did he build a city? Ah, old old questions and as you know, all this involved his siblings was the traditional answer. For myself, I am looking into the possibility of preAdamic races without polygenism. I.e. Adam is genuinely the father of all men, and we all take natural descent from him, but without excluding the possibility that his descendants bred with autochthonous populations. But I could be way off on that.
Either way, I don’t find it coincidental that archaeologists believe that full-fledged humanity as we know it began in the Sumerian plain about the same time.
Are there any examples of humanity that are not "full fledged"?
Is a fetus a "full fledged" Human or a developing evolutionary potential human?
At what point does a fetus join the ranks of us full fledged humans?
Interesting info on the archeological stand point of the beginnings in the Sumerian plain. It is a period that is far outside of any claim I may have on historical knowledge.
Ref the time question, a priest in PA once told us a joke.
A man had the opportunity to converse with God, and asked him: “God, is it true that a minute to you is like a million years to us?”
God said “yes.”
The man asked “and, God is true that if I give one dollar to your service, that it is the same as a rich man giving a million dollars?”
God said “yes.”
The man then asked “God, would you give me a million dollars?”
God answered “In a minute...”