I'm not quite sure I was able to follow all of the previous arguments, but I do want to throw in two questions: 1. Since -- as was already pointed out -- the sun wasn't created until the fourth day (1:14-19), how could the preceding "days" possibly be of the exact same nature as the time periods we experience again and again, called "days"? A day is understood in the Hebrew bible as beginning with sundown and continuing through the sunrise until the next sundown -- in other words, since our definition of "day" requires a sun, how can one possibly interpret the "evening and the morning of the first day" (before the "greater light" in the expanse of the sky existed -- the sun) in Gen 1:5 literally? 2a. The main purpose of Gen 1:1-2:3 -- as far I can see -- was to introduce god as the source of cosmic order and meaningful life, as well as to serve as a model from which liturgy and commandments can be derived -- such as in the above mentioned Ex 20:11. What difference does it make in regard to that purpose whether god created the world in -- let's say -- 6 billion years or in 6x24 hours or in six seconds? 2b. Why should one have to take the assertion that HaShem made the world in six days (resembling a typical human time frame for completing one's work) any more literally than the assertion in Gen 3:8-12 that HaShem "moved about" in the garden at a breezy time of day, making a sound and asking questions (resembling typical human behaviour)?