With sympathy to the parent poster, who may have grown up in a religious tradition that tries to equate biblical truth with historical/scientific truth across t

With sympathy to the parent poster, who may have grown up in a religious tradition that tries to equate biblical truth with historical/scientific truth across the board, remember that the concept that there is such a thing as scientific truth, or at least a scientific explanation, is itself pretty modern. The origin stories are about creating identity and revealing deep aspects of psychology and sociology. They may also contain echos of earlier events. They were not written to fill up ignorance, but to teach wisdom. Taught that way, they contain many helpful insights. The claim that Adam and Eve is "literally what happened" is ridiculous on its face. Talking snakes? Really? But there is a lot of wisdom in the story.