Wait, wait, wait. Why would that have to be?{snip} Anyway, that's what I believe personally, because it makes perfect sense to me.
So you believe that Genesis 1 is literal, and Genesis 2, where animals are created AFTER man, is wrong? Why do you think Genesis 2 is wrong? Do you think it's a myth, or a mistake, or what?
See, taking either one of them as literal doesn't make any sense to me. Even before I had ever heard of evolution, or had any idea what scientists said, I knew Genesis was never intended to be taken literally. It's obviously written as a myth, a story to explain the origin of Humans. As a myth, it is very good. It has its basis in truth, as all myth must, but the specifics are not to be taken literally. The TRUTH of the Genesis story is that God created everything. Our God (assuming you worship the same God as is described in the Jewish Bible) isn't just a really cool supernatural being who can do powerful things, the way other gods who were worshiped at that time were. Those gods may have been in existence since the beginning of time, or before, but they weren't seen as The Creator. The writers of Genesis are saying all those other gods are mere shadows of ours. Ours created all those other gods.
And what's more, our God CARES about us. He cares, because he created us, and everything around us. He loves us as if we were his own children, because we are his own children. This is unlike anything else worshiped at the time, and the Hebrews knew it. That is why God inspired them to write these myths, so that they would last throughout time.
A literal understanding of Genesis would imply that the first human's name was "The Man." What kind of name is that? Clearly, in naming him Adam, the writer was making it clear to all readers that this is a myth. It's as obvious as if you say, "Once upon a time...." Genesis 1, with its stories of what was created each day, ending with the refrain, "And it was evening, and it was morning, the ___ day." So obviously not intended to be taken literally. Genesis 2, likewise, was a myth, but it was written by a different set of Hebrews. It was written by the Hebrews who had settled in the Northern Kingdom (Israel), while Genesis 1 was written by the Hebrews of the Southern Kingdom (Judah). Two totally different stories, that contradict each other in specifics, but the Hebrews knew they were BOTH important, so they kept them both, side by side.
Honestly, people, when you insist that it's literal, not only do you have to twist yourself into all sorts of knots to make it fit with itself (let alone reality), you MISS SO MUCH BEAUTY of the stories as they are written.
I just don't understand.
