[Prodigal Son]

That's the point. Why would a creator go to so much trouble to deceive us into believing the universe is a specific age (ie placing so many old things about and giving us minds and tools to observe these things)? I agree with you completely.

[biblewonk]

Parden me for butting in but, it would have seemed like a deception to man to have examined Adam the day he was created. He would have seemed to have been 20ish years old and one would have to thing that God was lying.

In Genesis God gives the order of creation which does not match the assumed order in the THEORY of evolution. Here again if God did a long day thing or a gap thing His word is fibbing about the length of days and the order of creation. It seems to be an awful easy thing to take God at His word and ascribe to Him the ability to have done it in whatever timeframe He wanted but definitely in the timeframe He said.

[newgeezer]

Why would a creator go to so much trouble

"Trouble"? He spoke it into existence. Didn't even break a sweat.

to deceive us into believing the universe is a specific age

You're limiting your conclusion to your own set of rules, instead of allowing Him to set His own. You simply won't allow Him to create something that "looks old" to your way of thinking. Remember, prior to The Fall, nothing "aged." There was no such thing as entropy. Everything would have looked "old" to us, because we only know how things work in our own experience of time. He has no time.

But, if you insist on thinking that way, you'll have to also declare His creating the adult Adam was an identical deception. Because, when Adam was only one day old, he looked like an adult. Same goes for the plants, animals, fish, etc. Unless, of course, you dismiss the Creation Story altogether.