Because EVERYWHERE we look we find evidence,
that when coupled with known natural laws,
screams at us that the universe IS OLD.

If the universe
only has the "appearance" of being old, then
the evidence we find for such along with the
known natural laws are meaningless. More to
the point of this board, and making the most
dramatic of cases - nothing astronomers observe would be real - it would all be a big
facade, a show, a dream, a whatever, but it
wouldn't be real. Some creationists claim
that the evidence of scientists was put there
by the devil. But these are the World's (in
capital letters) data - did the devil create
the universe? And if all that we can learn
and experience is false, then this is the
universe created by the creationist's God?
(I could go on, but I'd be moving too
far afield from this board....)