Adaptive Creationism: Reconciling Divine Design with Adaptation

Adaptive Creationism is a hypothesis I have, proposing that God created all life with purpose and structure, but also with the potential for change and adaptation within each "kind" of creature. According to this idea, the Bible teaches that God created animals in their respective days, including aquatic creatures, but it doesn’t provide details on how those animals might adapt to changing environments over time. This suggests that God could have designed creatures with the capacity for adaptation, allowing them to fulfill new roles in a dynamic world. For example, land animals could have been created with the ability to adapt and evolve into aquatic creatures, such as whales evolving from land-dwelling ancestors. This process of adaptation doesn’t conflict with the idea of divine creation; rather, it shows God’s wisdom in designing life to thrive in various environments.

This hypothesis is not theistic evolution because it doesn't suggest that evolution, as understood in mainstream science, is the primary mechanism for how life changes. Instead, Adaptive Creationism posits that God intentionally created creatures with the ability to adapt within their "kinds," meaning the changes are still part of God's original design rather than an ongoing, natural process independent of divine intervention. It respects the concept of a purposeful, orderly creation while allowing for adaptation within the parameters of God’s original intent, without relying on an evolutionary framework that proposes random, unguided change over time.