From Moses we know that 6000 years ago the world did not exist. But of this no philosopher can in any way be persuaded….But all these [philosopher’s] disputations, though subtle and clever, are not to the point in question.…Equally useless is it to consider Moses in the beginning of his [Genesis] history as speaking mystically or allegorically.…Moses spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor figuratively; that is, he means that the world with all [original] creatures was created in six days as he himself expresses it.…Let us come at once to Moses as a far better teacher, whom we may more safely follow than we may philosophers, who dispute without the Word about things they do not understand.

--Martin Luther (Luther on the Creation: A Critical and Devotional Commentary on Genesis, H. Cole, trans. J. N. Lenker, ed. 40-43).