[CyberCowboy777]

Then you agree that the passage could simply mean that the serpent would be on the ground and by consequence would ingest dust.

The point was metaphoric and literal - the metaphor having substance in fact. Satan - the serpent in question - is not an actual serpent, but instead came as a serpent (less likely to scare Eve?).

I take almost everything in Genesis literally (within context)- because unlike my peers I am not arrogant about what I know and am aware that I cannot fathom what I do not know.

If anything science has shown that we really understand little.

[js1138]

Then you agree that the passage could simply mean that the serpent would be on the ground and by consequence would ingest dust.

I find that interpretation perverse beyond imagination. It conveys no useful message, moral or otherwise. I assume that forcing another creature to eat dirt is a rather old form of punishment and humiliation -- literally and figuratively. But think about this: the serpent in the garden might be interpreted as a literal snake, implying that snakes have or had mystical powers. Or it might be interpreted as Satan disguised as a snake, in which case, real snakes have been unjustly punished for all these millennia.