Hell, it could have been created last Thursday with the appearance of age. However, if it appears to be 4.5 billion years old but that is simply a trick played by God to test our faith, that doesn't speak well of the Almighty.
Dozens of lines of evidence point to an ancient age for the Solar System and the Earth -- and all of them pretty much agree on that age. You simply pooh-pooh this as "opinions" and "beliefs."
Problem, it doesn't appear to be 4.5 billion.. any more than it appeared to be any other age over 6000 years that has been in vogue during the last however many years. What was the estimate before the 4.5 billion, and the one before that, and before that, etc. You guys don't consider information that excludes older dates and that is where you lie to yourselves. God hasn't been involved in tricking you at all. I'm sure he spun the planets in all directions and galaxies, etc just to trick you into saying a big bang did it - knowing the law of Conservation of Angular momentum refutes it. But, see, when ya'll started down the road to calling God a liar, ya'll didn't really know that law, did ya. In fact, most of the laws that we work with now, evolutionists were either ignorant of or didn't consider when proposing things that violated them.
In short, if anyone is tricking anyone here, it is you evolutionists doing it to yourselves.
Dozens of lines of evidence point to an ancient age for the Solar System and the Earth -- and all of them pretty much agree on that age. You simply pooh-pooh this as "opinions" and "beliefs."
No, dozens of lines of evidence do no such thing and one need not simply pooh-pooh it. If you make an assertion, it is up to you to prove that assertion, show it to be falsifiable and reconcile issues in contention - that would be presenting and explaining anything that would limit the age substantially - such as, oh, particles that have a half life in the fractions of a second leaving halos of decay in bedrock. Pretty well sinks any theory that it was formed over millions of years if bedrock solidified so quickly that it captured decay on a halflife that short. Must be God tricking us again, huh.
Like I've said over and again, it ain't the evidence that stands in contention.. it's the spin you put on it. You grab what you want and deny or suppress what doesn't support you. When you're found out, ad-hominem. Wouldn't it be easier on you just to admit to the truth.. no, 'spect not. Afterall, you're defending your lifestyle with it and you just can't constrain yourself to live a moral life, much less a Godly one, right. I keep forgetting that's what this is all actually about. But, I'm sure you'll do your best Billy Clinton for us "I have family values".. Hitler did too, shall we dance..
Cheap shots aside, how well do you *know* God to be sure it is a trick to test our faith? How do you know what God's attitude actually IS towards these items?
(If you can question 'how can religious adherents affirm that THEIR VERSION of the Bible (i.e. I haven't seen any Muslims arguing from the Koran here) is TRUE', then your assertion about God's motivations is subject to the same challenge...)