Why?
Because of what it says in Joshua:
Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,“O sun, stand still at Gibeon, And O moon in the valley of Aijalon.”So the sun stood still, and the moon waited, until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. (Is it not written in the book of Jashar: "And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.")For thousands of years, these verses were read literally, and Jews taught and believed that the sun's daily journey across the sky had been halted. About 400 years ago, Copernicus put forth a theory to explain some facts and argued that previous understandings were wrong: The sun, not the earth, he said, is at the center of the solar system; moreover, the sun only appears to be moving across our sky because it is being orbited by the earth.
Copernicus's arguments won the day, and eventually Jews relented, and the verses from Joshua were reinterpreted. Today no Orthodox Jew argues against the heliocentric solar system. Instead, we say that it was only from Joshua's perspective that the sun seemed to halt.
There's no reason why the same trick of reinterpretation can't be applied to Genesis. Like Copernicus, Darwin put forth a theory to explain a set of facts. Over time, as new facts were discovered, and our understanding of the old facts improved, Darwin's explanation only looks better and better. So why can't we do with Genesis what's already been done with Joshua? If we can change the meaning of "So the sun stood still" to fit our new and improved understanding of the nature of things, why can't we do the same with any other verse?
Bonus Quiz:
Who said it (and is it just me or does this sound just like my angry commenters?): There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes round instead of the sky, sun and moon, just as if somebody moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must needs invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! That fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth.
Bonus Fun Fact to Know and Tell:
Yesterday, one of the angry commenters said: Next you'll tell me Adam wasn't really made from the Adamah or that Isha wasn't really "mei'ish lu'kacha. Hoping to find a tanna who said it, I repaired to the midrash rabbah -- and came up empty. Though my review of other midrashic literature remains incomplete, I did find a Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer which turns a verse from Genesis on it head. It says:
וְהָאָדָם יָדַע אֶת־חַוָּה אִשְׁתֹּו וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד אֶת־קַיִן וַתֹּאמֶר קָנִיתִי אִישׁ אֶת־יְהוָה׃
And Adam knew Chava his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Kayin, saying "I have acquired a man from God."
Though it seems straightforward, and obvious that Adam is Kayin's father, Pirke de Rabbi Elezar (and some parallels in the name of Rav Hiyya) says the demon Samael, riding on the serpent, impregnated Chava, and what Adam "knew" was that an act of adultery had been committed.
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