Paradigmatic? Not even close. It is the default position of one large group of Christian believers mostly in the US, and even within that group the belief in a literal six day creation is diminishing according to Pew. Now as many believe in guided evolution as believe in humans popping into existence as they are without evolutionary processes. So, it might be a big strawman but it does not represent by any means what Christians in general believe about creation.

I think the Genesis account is poetic in a sense, but even more, it is very reflective of the Ancient Near East culture. John Walton has written some great stuff on this if you are interested. Where the Hebrew account of creation varied from the common beliefs of other cultures in that area was in the idea of a God of gods, Elohim.

I find it interesting that you would suggest that unless the bible is literally true as some would have it, none of it could be true or convey truth. Dickens wrote :"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I could argue that is not literally true, but would that make the underlying truth false as well? Or take another example. I think much of what is written about neo-Darwinism being the sum total of how life and the history of life evolved is not factual and stretches beyond what this version of evolution can claim. If I am right, am I then required to throw out everything they say about evolution and maybe even the whole idea of evolution?