Let me give my own answer to my question, and perhaps that will clear things up a bit.
1. God is not a liar. "God is not a man that he should lie." Numbers 23:19
2. The earth has a plethora of overwhelming evidence i.e. that it is ancient: radiometric dating, ice layering, meteor crators, continental drift, Y-chromosomal ancestry, seeing starlight that has taken billions of years to reach us, and so much more.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_against_a_recent_creation
3. If the earth were young, it would mean that God created it with all this "evidence" in tow, thus creating lies ....
THEREFORE
4. Young Earth Creationism cannot be true because it makes God a liar.
Hi OH,
Sorry to be so long in getting out a response. I've been traveling for the past two weeks.
Let's consider what the 'evidence' is exactly. I pick up a rock. Just a simple rock that I find in the dirt. I say to myself, "I wonder how old this rock is?" So, I study the rock. I submit it to several different testing procedures that I have designed that I believe will tell me how old the rock is. I believe that the testing procedures are correct because I believe that I understand how things work. In other words, based on the natural properties that I have found working on the earth today, I believe that I can gain a measurement of past history. But God tells me a little about how I am prone to think. I think myself wise, but in reality God says that my foolish heart is darkened. Paul also warns us that we should not be swayed by arguments that are based on the natural properties of things.
Now, because I believe myself to be wise based on the natural properties of things, and therefore come up with wrong answers about such things, is God a liar or am I? I would finally add that we are not to lean upon our own understanding. If we want to know the truth, then we need to ask for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus wouldn't listen to the testimony of men because he knew what was in a man's heart. Why would we, then, feel inclined to believe the testimony of men over the testimony of God?
When I read the first chapter of the book of Romans I am overwhelmed with how foolish our wisdom really is, and even believe, based on this piece of Scripture, that when God gave us over to follow the depravity of our hearts, that part of that consequence is this nature to believe men rather than God. In fact, that's exactly what the piece of Scripture says:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Although they 'claimed to be wise', they became fools...
God bless you,
In Christ, Ted