Why assume that? He tells us in the narrative itself that creation was created with the appearance of age. However, the "milllllllions and miiiiiiiiillions of yeeeeeears" jibber-jabber, well, God didn't tell us that, nor does the actual state of the physical world suggest it. That's just a daffy and thoroughly inane idea that man came up with all by his lonesome.
Sure He did, through His laws of physics.
If you think the laws of physics are malleable, well, there’s a place at the local mosque for you.
Really? The Bible specifically asserts that the creation was made to appear older than it actually was? I missed that bit. Please direct me to the relevant text.
However, the "milllllllions and miiiiiiiiillions of yeeeeeears" jibber-jabber, well, God didn't tell us that, nor does the actual state of the physical world suggest it. That's just a daffy and thoroughly inane idea that man came up with all by his lonesome.
It was actually a creationist idea.
Although a definite age for the earth was not established until the advent of radiometric dating in the 1950's, it was pre-Darwinian geologists, Christians and creationists to a man, who initially concluded that the earth was extremely ancient, on the order of many millions to hundreds of millions of years.
Young earth creationism and flood geology are the recent elaborations. They didn't become predominant among fundamentalists until the last several decades, initially popularized by Whitcomb and Morris' The Genesis Flood, published in 1961.
Whitcomb and Morris were reviving a "flood geology" that was innovated by George McCready Price in the 1920's.
Interestingly, Price, a Seventh Day Adventist, was motivated not by the direct requirements of the Biblical text, but by the writings of Adventist founder Ellen G. White, accepted by Adventists as an infallible "prophet," who claimed and described detailed "visions" of the creation and the flood.
So, modern YEC, at least in its origins, is basically a cult belief.
Excepting the occasional footnote, Henry Morris (a Baptist, IIRC) pretty consistently hid or downplayed his debt to Price. Notably the book in which he most completely acknowledged Price's role -- History of Modern Creationism, 1984 -- was latter pulled from publication by the Institute for Creation Research. To replace it Morris wrote a new book -- The Long War Against God: the history and impact of the creation/evolution conflict, 1989 -- which swept the Adventist influence back under the carpet.