Very little of the Bible is supposed to be firsthand accounts of events. I doubt that will be any more satisfying for you as an atheist, but that is at least the explanation that you're going to get. Basically God is meant to have imparted this information a priori.
Yeah, i read some of genesis today and noticed these things that are different. 1. In genesis 1, animal life arose from water, in genesis to, it arose from the ground. 2. in genesis 1, god made life and rested and all was good, as if he just let life do its thing, in genesis 2, he put that tree of knowledge of good and evil there and sin came into the world. genesis two kinda brings us to where the christian sees us at now, in a sinful world that needs forgiveness. if genesis one played out, we'd all be naked, vegetarians, runnin round the earth fuckin like bunnies. lol okay well thats ym take peace!!
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but if people are already prone to believe in talking snakes...it wouldn't be that much a stretch of the imagination to believe that God shaved some lamb skin (?) and inscribed words on it?
Well, basically you are right about what would happen if Genesis one had played out but Genesis two is the reason that it didn't.