Jenny30-
The creation stories of Genesis were not intended as a scientific treatise; they were intended as a rebuttal and demythologization of another creation story which the Hebrews had learned as fact during their time in Egypt:
www.theologywebsite.com/etext/egypt/creation.shtml
In the earlier one everything around them was to be seen as either a god, a goddess, or the representation of a deity. The sun and moon were to be seen as deities; the stars were to be seen as the garment worn by a deity; the atmosphere itself was to be seen as a deity; even justice was to be seen as a deity. The people were to accept that they were literally surrounded and enveloped in deities.
Genesis 1:1-2:3 methodically stripped all of these objects and animals of their divinity. By the time that the reader finished, the sun, moon and stars were to be seen as merely objects in the heavens, the atmosphere was to be seen as merely the space that separated the heavens from the earth, and all of the other species of animals were to be seen as nothing more than other species of animals. Only one being was to be recognized as a deity, and that being was over and above all that he had created, as well as being invisible. So no painting of him could ever appear on a tomb wall, and no sculpture of him could ever appear in a manmade temple.
The second creation story (Genesis 2:4-25) separated mankind from the other species of animals. In the egyptian creation epic he had been created along with all the other species on the last day, and then 'dumped' onto this planet. But this story in Genesis set him apart. Only man could converse with God, and have God converse with him. Only man had the authority to name all the other species of animals, a symbol of power during that era. God had created a special place for man (The Garden of Eden) where he could live comfortably. And even his helpmate (Eve) had been created in a special way.
As well, only man could choose to reject the innocence which he initially shared with the other species of animals, choosing instead to obtain the knowledge of good and evil. He could 'evolve' to the point where he recognized that certain actions were to be seen as good, while other actions were to be seen as evil. At a certain point in prehistory man attained this knowledge, and he has never been innocent since that point.
Moses, whom I accept as having written Genesis, used another egyptian myth to teach the Hebrews that when they first came into existence they were innocent, but at a certain point in time they lost that innocence. The Fall of Man, described in Genesis 3, was initially a battle between Ra, the sun god, and Sebau, the serpent-fiend. But whereas Ra had needed to fight Sebau, defeat him, and then cripple him so that he was required to crawl on the ground on his belly, as recorded in the egyptian book of the dead under A Hymn to Ra, God needed only to say the word and the serpent was doomed.
www.africa.upenn.edu/Books/Papyrus_Ani.html
Would the Hebrews have known what Moses was doing? Yes, they would have. The egyptian creation epic and the deeds of Ra were a major part of egyptian religious practices, so the link would have been instantly recognized by the people to whom Genesis was originally written. They would have understood what Moses was focusing on, namely, that there was only one God, not many, and that man was as innocent of good and evil as the other species of animals are yet today, but unlike them, man attained that knowledge, only to have it become his curse.