> I just can't bring myself to believe that their literalism was anti-intellectual and anti-scientific like current-day literalism.

Of course it wasn't, because when it came to the Big Questions, the communally agreed-upon authority of tradition was all they had. The only "science" that existed was "common sense." And we know how unreliable that can be. ("Of course the sun goes round the Earth. You can see it with your own eyes!")

There are still unanswered Big Questions, but evolution isn't one of them.