Modern scholarship largely agrees that Genesis ... at least the first 11 chapters or so ... is myth ... at best. Possibly just wrong, but, at the very least, not literally true. This view only became mainstream in the modern age of science. Early church fathers (such as Philo of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine) questioned a six-day Creation, but their skepticism (not of God's creation, but of a literal 6-day creation) wasn't about the days, but about the fact that God could (and possibly did) create everything instantaneously. Not a longer time period based on science, but a shorter time period based on an Omnipotent God. The modern view started in the 17th century when modern scholars began re-examining Scripture in light of Science. (I capitalize "Science" here because the idea is that science is more reliable than God's word in interpreting truth, making "science" more like God than God's word is.) So they would read Genesis and see the time and story and say, "But ... that's not what Science is telling us," and reinterpret Scripture through that lens. (Let's be fair here. They weren't reinterpreting Scripture; they were challenging a literal reading of Scripture.)
The argument is that Genesis 1-11 is ... and at this point, the wording gets murky ... mythical, "mytho-history," "etiological myth," maybe "legend" or "saga." What makes those first 11 chapters not literal? They say that it's basically the shift to Abraham. Okay, that's simplistic. The first 11 chapters affect all humans everywhere. The subsequent chapters are about a family ... Abraham and his offspring. Creation, Adam, Noah, the Flood ... all these are singular and universal. Chapter 12 is family narrative. And, to be fair, "myth" in this use of the term is not "a made up story" like we'd understand it in other uses. It's more of a sacred narrative that presents a worldview through symbolic storytelling. This version of "myth" has the Bible telling stories in narrative, symbolic form that are intended to be understood in a nonliteral expression of truth. (For instance, "I'm hungry" would convey a literal statement while "I'm starving" would convey a nonliteral version with an exaggerated meaning for effect.) So calling Genesis 1-11 "myth" is not intended to convey that it's false; just that it's not literal. Jesus, for instance, told parables. We all understand those are not to be understood in a strictly literal sense, but as allegory. Prophetic texts like Daniel, Ezekiel, or Revelation include descriptions that are considered symbolic, not literal. This concept of nonliteral texts in Scripture isn't new or unreasonable.
Still, for millennia, the vast majority of followers of the God of the Bible and His Son have understood Genesis to be a literal representation of the beginning of life on Earth. Why? Why do they do that even in the face of Science? Well, it's not simply out of blind devotion or tradition. There are reasons. For instance, God uses the six-day creation account as a reason for the Sabbath (Exo 20:11). If you read Genesis just casually, you won't sense a change in delivery or language that indicates a change in presentation between Genesis 1-11 and the rest of the book. The unity of Genesis seems to support a literal interpretation of the first part as much as the second part. Luke traces Jesus's lineage to Adam (Luke 3:38). Paul uses Adam in his defense of "the gospel I preached to you" (1 Cor 15:1, 22) and argues that Adam and Moses were equally historical (Rom 5:14). He explains that "Adam was formed first, then Eve" as part of his explanation of why women shouldn't be in charge of men in church (1 Tim 2:13-14). Jude refers to Enoch and Adam as literal figures (Jude 1:14). Jesus and Paul both quote Genesis 2:24 as actual truth (Matt 19:5; Eph 5:31). In textual analysis, the chronological sequence ("first day," "second day," etc.) appears as historical prose rather than mere imagery. It uses ordinary language and repetitive structure ("and God said ... and it was so") like typical historical prose would. The author of the Genesis account used "the evening and the morning" as time-markers. Metaphor wouldn't have needed this kind of literal time marking. Further, a literal account supports both later Scriptural texts (as I've indicated) as well as basic theological concepts like "Original Sin" and God's Sovereignty over all. Add to this the weight of millennia of adherents who held to this view from the beginning and up to this day (understood through the lens of Jesus's claim that the Spirit would lead us into all truth) and you begin to see a large argument against a nonliteral understanding of Genesis 1-11.
I'm not solving the question for you. I'm laying out the two views and their reasons. Today, the primary reason for throwing out Genesis 1-11 as literal is a presupposition of the superiority of Science over a literal understanding. That's obviously a problem ... if a literal understanding is actually the truth. And when the "mythical" view starts erasing obvious truths from the Genesis account (like the claim that God made humans as male and female or that God ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman), it ceases to be a simple difference of an approach. You can't call such claims "mythical" by explaining "they don't mean anything like what they say" and still be embracing Scripture. But not all who oppose the literal understanding oppose the truth contained in Genesis 1-11, so we need to carefully examine the texts and the reasons for not taking them literally ... or taking them literally. Is it ... Science on one hand or tradition on the other? Are we pursuing a real understanding of God's word or are we defending a perception we prefer or have acquired? It's not a minor question and it isn't trivial. Let's be careful about minimalizing Scripture, but also about minimalizing genuinely honest interpretations that disagree with our own simply because they disagree. We need to consider God, His word, and His message over our own preferences and opinions, and consider the Holy Spirit rather than our own questionable understanding.
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