thankyou joe for the outline of what you were taught at theology classes.i have seen these arguments before and they are answered well by many orthodox scholars.to go through these would take some time and i am not very fast on my finger type.but i will discuss in more detail if required by yourself.
as much as i would like to have had you with me against stevism i find myself in the unlikely situation of agreeing that the majority view of accomodation is a cop out. dawkins even said that the "evangelicals have it right" in reference to where the battle really is.he actually seems more disdainful of the accomodatists,while at the same time largely avoiding creationists if they are well qualified scientists- but i drift!.
i think that your "progressive" views on the bible would not be countenanced as worthy of the tradition you claim to belong to by the early christians, and christians generally utill darwinism achieved the supremacy in origins thinking.at that point the bible began to be interpreted in light of "science" to read what no-one had seen before!