Why did God get rid of the Trilobites?

[slartibartfast]

They were so beautiful, peaceful species who flourished in our World's oceans for over one-quarter of a billion years:




Did God just want to make us feel bad?  And, in feeling bad, maybe lead more of us to Jesus, Allah, etc.?

He didn't. It's all a ruse. Since the earth is only 6000 years old all fossils were put into the earth at that time to tempt poor bastards like us 6000 years later to the dark side by making evolution look like a viable theory to test our faith, when none of it actually happened. Stop looking for reasons to doubt God's word - all you need is the magic book. It explains everything.

I have had numerous conversations on other forums where Christians were making exactly this and other related arguments. Same goes for distances between stars etc. Their refutation for light having observably travelled billions of years to reach us being proof of a Universe far older than 6000 years was that God created all of the light beams in mid-flight - at the same time as all of the "Stuff" in the Universe in the exact state that it exists today - so they would appear to reach us at the exact moment he intended (ie. now that he has deemed us to invent telescopes). It never occurred to the person that if God had that power / intention they he wouldn't have to create any stars at all - just continuously creating mid-flight light beams and other radiation would do.

It astounds me that seemingly rational and functioning people can actually believe that if there is a God, he would go to such lengths to create a completely "fake" Universe with the level of intricacy required to continually defeat new levels of the science onion an still remain consistent just for our benefit.