[JohnnyM]

"The religious response to that seems to be that God created a "mature" universe that looks to us like it is billions of years old when in fact it is not"

My answer is God created a mature Adam. Adam was not created as a baby. Why would creating a mature Earth be somehow off limits for Him?

JM

[nyg4168]

I see no reference in Genesis to Adam being an adult male at his creation.

[WildTurkey]

Dr. Wiens:

"Rightly Handling the Word of Truth

As Christians it is of great importance that we understand God's word correctly. Yet from the middle ages up until the 1700s people insisted that the Bible taught that the Earth, not the Sun, was the center of the solar system. It wasn't that people just thought it had to be that way; they actually quoted scriptures: "The Earth is firmly fixed; it shall not be moved" (Psalm 104:5), or "the sun stood still" (Joshua 10:13; why should it say the sun stood still if it is the Earth's rotation that causes day and night?), and many other passages. I am afraid the debate over the age of the Earth has many similarities. But I am optimistic. Today there are many Christians who accept the reliability of geologic dating, but do not compromise the spiritual and historical inerrancy of God's word."