One of the objections to Young Earth Creationism is that the world has the appearance of age. There are two examples of this. First, for us to be able to see light from stars, millions of light years away, then surely that light will have needed millions of years to reach here. Secondly, it seems that if rocks have been formed by the gradual laying down of sediments then this would also have required millions of years too.
Therefore, the challenge comes, that if God has created a world with the appearance of age and this isn’t the case, then God has been playing tricks with us. He has been faking it. I think this argument is based on a faulty presupposition, on a misunderstanding.
The faulty presupposition misses the point that evidence is about understanding data and interpreting it in context. It’s not about the data in isolation. If I asked you to tell me when a bath was poured based on the temperature of the water now, then you would only be able to tell me how long it has been poured for if you knew the temperature when it was poured.
In the same way, if we assume the age of the earth based on the rate at which rock sedimentary layers have been laid down but we do not know the starting point then we risk making a faulty calculation. God is not tricking us if we choose to make conclusions about the data without considering all of the crucial information.
Now, if we assume the creation of a literal Adam and Eve, then we allow for the possibility that God could and perhaps would create certain things already mature. Adam and Eve would not have been created as embryos or even infants but as grown up adults. It is therefore possible that God could create plants, crops, trees, fruit mature and ready. It is also therefore possible to consider the possibility that God could and indeed probably would have created the planet and indeed, the universe itself already mature.
Faithroots 