I prefer to believe that God would not have created a fossil record, DNA evidence, etc out of whole cloth, just to mislead.
I agree, but what if we are looking at it wrong??
I'm sure St. Peter did not want to 'mislead', either, but....
2 Peter 3:15-17
15. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.
Well, how do YOU look at it, then, if "we" are looking at it "wrong". (I presume your pronoun 'it' in this case refers to the myriads of fossil and DNA evidence...)