[dfwgator]

The Bible has only been in printed form for about 700 years or so, before then the masses couldn’t even read for the most part...how could the creation of the Earth be explained in such a way other than in allegorical form?

People get caught up in the minutiae, rather than focusing on the big picture.

[Verginius Rufus]

It's the same issue which arose when Copernicus challenged the commonly-held belief that the earth was the center of the universe and did not move, while the sun, planets, and stars revolved around the earth. When Copernicus' book was published, Luther and Calvin rejected his theory as contrary to the Scriptures. The Catholic Church eventually condemned his book but not until about 70 years later. Nowadays no one has any trouble accepting that the earth is a planet revolving around the sun and rotating on its axis.

Galileo said, "The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."

[Boogieman]

“.how could the creation of the Earth be explained in such a way other than in allegorical form?”

Well, how about a simplified narrative that is at the same time not factually untrue? We do that all the time when explaining things to our children, so it can’t be beyond the capacity of God to do the same.

[DManA]

I think God through the writer of Genesis did an amazing job of explaining the universe using the vocabulary of a bronze age shepherd.

[boatbums]

The Bible has only been in printed form for about 700 years or so

Just to clarify..."printed" form, maybe, but it has been in written form from the time of Moses (Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE). The Book of Job has even been thought to be written earlier than the Pentateuch/Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament called the Books of Moses). The entire Old Testament was completed, written and copied by hand by the fourth century B.C. and these writings were prevalent in the Jewish temples and every synagogue.

All of the New Testament was entirely written and copied by the end of the first century A.D. There are THOUSANDS of fragments of these writings in museums and collections. So, just because the printing press wasn't around until the 1500's doesn't mean the Bible was not available in a readable format way before then.