"I've yet to see how the Genesis account even remotely synchs up with science, but whatever."
Earth already existed- before the Creative 'Days'- but was a "waste'.
First- Light to reach the Earth (source not specified)
Second- Plant life
Third- Animal Life
Last- man. Formed from the ground. No 'immortal soul'.
Not, as in religions of that time, a drop of blood from battling Gods becoming the first man.
Not a fish becoming a monkey becoing a man...with female versions evolving at the same rate side by side...