chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis. We have already seen that the fact that these two stories themselves are incompatible with each other should warn us against treating them as if they were divinely dictated accounts, given to save us the trouble of scientific investigation into terrestrial and cosmic history. In reading any form of literature, part of the respect that we show it is to be careful to identify the genre of what is before us. Different kinds of writing have to be understood in different kinds