[Still Thinking]

God would have had to have created the world in some kind of miraculous manner (possible), but this divine Action would simultaneously give the appearance of the world being millions of years old. This would make God deceptive, which is logically impossible.

No, saying that would make God deceptive is to hold Him responsible for the misapprehension of humans who insist on interpreting the evidence without allowing for His influence. Hardly His fault when all throughout history He is proclaiming His existence to those very humans.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

——No, saying that would make God deceptive is to hold Him responsible for the misapprehension of humans who insist on interpreting the evidence without allowing for His influence.-——

Given my understanding of the science, that would hold true for the origin of life, and the origin of human beings. AFAIK, purely material causes cannot explain these things. Miraculous intervention in the Created order would explain these things, harmonizing science with the miraculous.

But the expansion of the universe, from the first moment of Creation through the formation of the planets, can be explained by natural forces, and does not require miraculous intervention. I take this on authority from people like Fr. Robert Spitzer.