You are asking them to believe that tens of thousands of highly trained experts
Appeal to popularity.
- with real jobs they can lose if discovered to be lying - are collaborating in a vast conspiracy to deceive the world into thinking that we evolved from lower forms when there is no good evidence to support this view.
The only one who's said anything about a conspiracy (in the common usage of the term) here so far is you.
That being said, those who hate God tend to conspire against Him, so in that sense, yes, there is a conspiracy, but it's a conspiracy against God, not against society.
Evolution is common ground for those who hate God, and since most of the world rejects Him, why would any of those scientists be fired if it promotes rejection of God? Remember, misery loves company. Those who reject God are (generally speaking) far more miserable than those who love Him. Thus, those who promote evolution, to the extent that they hate God, work together to do so, even and especially if it means rejecting what is true.
If you are willing to take such notions seriously, you can dismiss any well-established scientific finding.
Why?
And all this because you insist on a literal reading of the first chapter or so of Genesis,
The first chapter of Genesis is a record of the origin of the universe and everything in it. It was written using literal terms. There's no reason NOT to read it literally.
when a metaphorical one is certainly plausible, and in no way diminishes the authority of scripture.
Bob Enyart spoke at Pepperdyne University about what happens when you reject Genesis 1 as literal. It (rejecting chapter 1 as literal) DESTROYS the rest of scripture, because it is the foundation on which the rest of scripture sits.