Hi Peg.
This thread is fascinating.
Over the course of 150-odd posts you've been asked, nay,
hounded to answer "the question". I get the impression that Rrhain (and others) have asked this in the past (of you, I'm sure, and others as well). It must smart a little for you (and Slevesque) to need to tap dance around the issue instead of just admitting
you cannot answer "the question".
That is, you can't answer without compromising many (if not all) base tenets of your literalist dogma.
Rrhain's right: neither of you is stupid. So it is particularly telling that I can't imagine you don't recognize your dilemma and the indefensible position in which you find yourselves, at least from a reasonable, rational standpoint.
Don't feel bad, guys. As far as I can ascertain from an (admittedly) cursory search, no one else can come up with an acceptable response to the underlying basis of Rrhain's question, either. I'll leave it to you to think about the ramifications.
This inability and/or refusal to answer a simple question speaks volumes.
Have a good one.
"My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we
can suppose. J.B.S Haldane 1892-1964