I have recent files showing in Finder and I do not want them to

Well it seems that nobody mentioned the obvious… if I am understanding it correctly, you are talking about the Recents item that shows up in the Sidebar. This can be made to disappear easily. Control-click and choose Remove from Sidebar.

The only way to completely remove it is by disabling Spotlight.

https://www.howtogeek.com/716661/how-to-hide-or-disable-the-recents-folder-on-the-mac/

Apple Icon on Desktop >> pop down menu >> Recent. Under normal usages - it will list all recently opened Applications and below that Documents. At the very bottom of that Menu >> notice Clear Menu. That will do exactly that Recent Applications and Documents will be cleared just to be recreated once one starts to open Apps and Docs

Aside - showing Big Sur 11.4 which is out dated. Current version is 11.5.1. Just do a TM backup before attempting.

There is no way to clear that short of deleting the kMDItemLastUsedDate metadata entry. That may prove much more difficult than not opening Recents.

Was about to say AFAIK - not known by myself but fellow Contributor ( Thank you @Barney-15E ) basically confirmed was I suspected.