What is the Purpose of Genesis 1?

What was the author's original intention for Genesis chapter 1? Dr. Craig responds!

The point of the first chapter of Genesis is not to say that the world was created in six consecutive 24-hour days. Rather, it uses the metaphorical language of days to de-sacralize nature. In contrast to the ancient myths of Israel's neighbors, Genesis 1 does not regard the natural world as infused with gods. Rather, God is a transcendent creator of the universe, and the things in the natural world are just ordinary things that God has made and therefore are not to be worshiped or venerated as deities. And this desacralization of nature, which is normally attributed to the Ionian Greek philosophers, the pre-Socratics, I think actually takes place in Israel centuries earlier and represents the religious genius of these ancient Hebrews that they understood the transcendence of God over the created order and the naturalness of the created order and hence its susceptibility to human exploration and discovery. It's a charter, in effect, for the project of modern science.