What about a linguistic/logical point of view?
We know that 'day', while generally 24 hours, refers to the time it takes sun to return to the same apparent position in the sky; this is supported by Joshua's "long day" (Josh 10) being referred to as a 'day'. (So, one must accept that 'day' needn't refer to a 24 hour period.)
Yes, the chapter says that there was no day like it before, or since, but that is for the sun [and moon] staying fixed in the sky — something that could not happen prior to the creation of the sun… or Earth (note that Gen 1:2 says the Earth was "without form, and void"). And, still before the sun [or Earth] was formed the first day ends with God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
So, how would you measure a 'day' by the "evening and morning" when the Sun doesn't yet exist?
Saying that the 'Day' in the Creation have to be 24-hours, is the same sort of worldview-centrism bias as those who claim that the language Adam (and the rest of humanity) spoke before Babel was Hebrew… utterly unsupported assumption tainted by one's own experiential [or philosophical] suppositions.
“We know that ‘day’, while generally 24 hours, refers to the time it takes sun to return to the same apparent position in the sky; this is supported by Joshua’s “long day” (Josh 10) being referred to as a ‘day’. (So, one must accept that ‘day’ needn’t refer to a 24 hour period.)”
What the scripture actually says:
Jos 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
The last part of the verse actually indicates that this day WAS a 24 hour day and not, as you suggest, that a day could be more than a 24 hour period.
The use of the Hebrew word “yom” used in scripture indicates the same period of time in virtually every instance it is referenced. Perhaps the question folks need to be asking is what was time like before sin entered the world. What was creation like before sin entered the world. Sin is a terrible thing, don’t you know:
Rom. 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom. 8:21-22 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Sin brings forth death, decay, corruption. What science is doing today is measuring that which is subject to these forces. What God made by His original design was not. And I’m willing to bet that science has no way of measuring/accounting for the variable “sin” in its calculations, yet this is THE factor, biblically speaking, when it comes to understanding what brings forth the death of something.