The Ages of the Patriarchs and Early Genealogies Are Incredibly Long

The ages of the patriarchs and early genealogies are incredibly long. Should we take these ages literally or not, because they vastly exceed the human life span to day? For example, methuselah, the arch who lives the longest, is said to live for 969 years. Most biblical scholars to day take these ages to be symbolic as a way of figuratively indicating the greatness of the patri ars. But young earth creationists tend to be biblical literalists, and so they take these agesliterally.