Is The Book of Genesis Just a Myth?

It is disconcerting to see Christians and theologians, when unable to come up with a logical, reasonable explanation of the stories in the book of Genesis, resort to another tool, "allegory". They justify this by depending on subtle changes of wording in the text and use of phrases as proof that much of it is inconsistent.

This could be expected in the earlier part of the 20^th century when there was a great difference between what science knew and what the theologians knew. They could avoid having to explain Noah's flood, Eden, and other 'fantastic' tales by retreating to an explanation that did not depend on scientific "facts". To them, it was safe, and easy, to say that it was all an allegorical story that was designed to present a lesson in morals, and not intended to be taken as 'factual' events. This avoided any conflict with science, that they didn't understand, and didn't require very much re-interpreting of the scriptures. Tradition could continue to prevail.

When I was much younger I also struggled with the conflict between science and religion. I loved science but I truly trusted the Bible to be factual. I didn't give up on it. I realized that science "interpretation" as well as religious interpretation is not infallible, and that there was enough uncertainty in both to justify waiting for the truth to come out in time. Time has been very kind to religion. More so than even to science.

Many of the events of the Old Testament have been verified since then through archeology and further advances in science. Many of the "mythical" cities of the early biblical history such as the city of Ur, have actually been discovered to be factual places, with artifacts that substantiate the stories of the Bible. Even the existence of David was questioned until recently when an archeological dig in the middle east uncovered an artifact with a reference to "King David".

Explanations of how to get around the O.T. stories as being fables have come and gone precipitously recently as more and more places like Sodom and Gomorrah, towns of the land of Israel, and references in Egyptian and Grecian tablets to the Hebrews, are being uncovered and discovered.

The flood of Noah is a good example of an event long considered too fantastic to be true, yet recent findings offer evidence that a catastrophic event did take place at that time in history, that could have been that event. For most in the scientific community, Heaven was always, and still is, a place that is a supernatural concept in the mind of the religious, yet science has recently adopted the position that there are "external universes' that we can't see. Most scientists still don't see the connection.

I have always trusted the written word in the Bible of an eyewitness, over the "hypothetical explanation" of someone who is a critic, as being the more reliable, and believe that the future will hold even more astonishing discoveries of the truths of the O.T. There are explanations for all the events recorded if we are willing to do a little searching, apply our imagination, and try to understand where the writer is coming from compared to what we know now to be true.

I still hold to the position that the Book of Genesis was meant to be a factual description of events that actually happened and any idea that its stories are too fantastic to be true, is due to our failure to look deeper and try to understand possible 'mis-understandings' about those events. I believe some theologians give up too soon. Perhaps time and science itself will make the picture even clearer.