Of course, I deny it—and so did the Church as a whole deny it until 1961.
Some ancient Jewish rabbis continued to believe into the 8th century A.D. that Genesis 1-11 was an accurate, literal account of actual historic events. Ancient Christian scholars, however, were writing at least as early as the first half of the third century A.D. that Genesis 1-11 is not and could not possibly be a literal account of any events. Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) spent much of his Christian life attempting to reconcile the observable world that God had created with a literal interpretation of Genesis. Late in his life, he published a two-volume work on Genesis 1-4 with the title De Genesi ad litteram (Literal Meaning of Genesis) in which he wrote that that he had not succeeded in his endeavor. See also the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament, Volume 1 on Genesis 1-11 in which numerous ancient Christians are quoted in context to reveal their non-literal interpretations of the passages of Genesis that were of special interest to them.
With the publication of De Genesi ad litteram, the issue of the literalness of Genesis 1-11 was essentially set aside until 1961 when two men raised it to the forefront of a new movement called Young Earth Creationism. One of these men did not know even so much as the first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet and had never earned even so much as an A.A. degree from a junior college in any field of the natural sciences. The other man had studied geology and paleontology for one year but changed the focus of his studies to ancient and European history and graduated in 1948 from Princeton University. He then enrolled at Grace Theological Seminary and in 1951 he completed a course of study for a B.D. Together, these two men authored a book with the title, The Genesis Flood. Although academicians viewed it as rubbish, Christian fundamentalists with a very limited education have believed every word of it without ever fact checking it.
Do you believe that God’s creation of the earth in Genesis is an accurate, literal account of actual historic events where the Bible expressly portrays God creating a flat earth covered with a dome that had real, literal windows in it that God literally opened to allow the celestial floodwaters to fall to the earth contributing to the flood?
Every word in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1-11 is to be understood literally. The windows were real windows in a solid structure. On page 21 of his commentary on Genesis, the late John Skinner, Principal and Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, Westminster College, Cambridge, writes,
6-8 Second Work: The Firmament.—The second fiat calls into existence a firmament, whose function is to divide the primeval waters into an upper and lower ocean, leaving a space between as the theater of further creative developments. The “firmament” is the dome of heaven, which to the ancients was no optical illusion, but a material structure, sometimes compared to an “upper chamber” (Ps. 104:12, Am 9:6) supported by “pillars” (Jb 26:11), and resembling in its surface a “molten mirror” (Jb 37:18). Above this are the heavenly waters, from which the rain descends through “windows” or “doors” (Gn 7:11, 8:2, 2 Ki 7:2, 19) opened and shut by God at His pleasure (Ps 78:23).
However, hundreds of years earlier, the first five books of the Tanakh were translated into Greek giving us the first part of the Septuagint. In the Septuagint, Genesis 1:6-8 reads,
Gen. 1:6. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός γενηθήτω στερέωμα ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ὕδατος καὶ ἔστω διαχωρίζον ἀνὰ μέσον ὕδατος καὶ ὕδατος. καὶ ἐγένετο οὕτως.
7. καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ στερέωμα, καὶ διεχώρισεν ὁ θεὸς ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ὕδατος, ὃ ἦν ὑποκάτω τοῦ στερεώματος, καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ὕδατος τοῦ ἐπάνω τοῦ στερεώματος.
8. καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ στερέωμα οὐρανόν. καὶ εἶδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλόν. καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωί, ἡμέρα δευτέρα.
The Greek word στερέωμα is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ, and expresses the concept of “the sky as a supporting structure, the firmament.” (BDAG, the italics are theirs). This Greek word is also found in Paul’s writings to express the concept of a “state or condition of firm commitment, firmness, steadfastness” (BDAG, the italics are theirs),
Col. 2.5. εἰ γὰρ καὶ τῇ σαρκὶ ἄπειμι, ἀλλὰ τῷ πνεύματι σὺν ὑμῖν εἰμι, χαίρων καὶ βλέπων ὑμῶν τὴν τάξιν καὶ τὸ στερέωμα τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν πίστεως ὑμῶν. (NA28)
Col. 2.5. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. (NRSV)
The Greek word στερέωμα is also found in a number of other ancient Greek writings where it always expresses the concepts of something solid, strength, firmness or steadfastness. Indeed, all hands (even the folks at Answers in Genesis!) freely admit that this Greek word expresses in Genesis the concept of a ‘solid, supporting structure.’
The Septuagint was the Bible of the Early Church until it was superseded by the Latin Vulgate. And, of course, what really matters is the choice of words used by the writers who penned the Tanakh—they used the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ that expresses the concept of the solid dome over the flat earth. For an excellent study of the first eleven chapters of Genesis as God gave them to us in the Hebrew language, please see the following:
Westermann, Clause. Genesis 1 - 11, German orig. 1972 (English translation by John J. Scullion, 1984 in the Continental Commentaries series, 646 pages).
Oh, and by the way, the article is anonymous, as all the articles there are, so nobody can correct their error. I don't allow my students to quote from anonymous sources in their research papers because of that lack of accountability. And before you ask, my real name is John R. Himes, as I've said numerous times on the BB, so no, I'm never anonymous.