Well, I totally agree with you in that these creation myths were orally handed down, borrowed from other cultures and expanded on to include the people's idea of God and the beginning of the world and humankind and then were written by DIFFERENT writers, all in a spiritually inspired attempt to make sense of the world around them.
I can't understand how anyone can take Genesis as science.
When you think about it, what kind of truths do you expect to find in the Bible?
Historical facts? NO
Scientific truth? NO
What I do expect to find in the bible is MORAL TRUTH-but even some of those have been revised as we've evolved as a people. We no longer condone slavery or the taking of many wives, or treating woman as property. But for those who read the Bible literally, these things are OK because they are in the Bible??
I would answer "yes" to both of those questions.
It's almost universally accepted among us believers in the Bible that the first 5 books of the Bible were writings COMPILED and written by Moses. So what's the big revelation here? Why don't you be honest and tell us you don't put much stock in the written word of God instead of coming in thru the backdoor? Sheesh you people.
So truth as a whole is not fixed, but dependent upon your view of it and how we as a people have 'evolved'. From that standpoint, you could justify X42's actions as 'well it was HIS view of the truth'
No argument here.
Historical facts? NO Scientific truth? NO
You need to take another look at the Bible. The first part of Genesis is not history, but many other parts of the Bible are strictly historical. There are many archaelogical digs which have confirmed Bible people, places, and facts.
The Bible was thought for many years to be wrong because they could not find the Hittite people which are mentioned in the OT. Then they found the Hittite city and their civilization buried under another city during excavation. It turned out the Bible was correct.
Some parts are intended to be historical, some are not. It takes some discernment to figure it out but that's not unusual, everyone has to use discernment to get through a day at work, much less read the Bible. People often have expectations for the Bible that are not reasonable, i.e., they expect people back in the OT to be different than they are today when they write history.