I believe the book of Genesis is factual. Read the ending of the book of Revelation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. It is difficult for me to imagine that the original earth was different than the new one. And how is that new earth described? It will have no mountains or oceans. Doesn't that give anyone a clue to how this "original" earth once looked?
I firmly believe that the FLOOD revamped the earth of Adam and Eve. It is this reality that many scientists fail to consider or realize. What we presently observe likely has little relationship to the earth Adam viewed. It was a far different planet. This planet has faced bombardment by asteroids and meteors and perhaps even comets. The surface of the earth split apart with geysers and volcanic eruptions totally unknown to Adam.
If some scientists are going to disregard GOD, they are missing the most important piece of data available. And this will cause them both confusion and misunderstanding of the data they do possess. A secular hole is no different than a religious blanket. They both can bring about blindness to reality.
You’re at liberty to believe whatever myths and fairytales you so desire.
But neither the Earth nor man were created by a deity.
There was no ‘flood,’ no Adam and Eve, no garden of Eden.
The bible is the creation of man, written by men, ‘inspired’ by no deity – the bible merely propagates ancient myths, folklores, and legends.
The flood myth, for example, was appropriated from Mesopotamian mythology – the Epic of Gilgamesh – which predates the bible, where the annual flooding of rivers was the most powerful force known to the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent.You are, of course, free to believe those fairy tales if you wish.