Daily Mail in Theory Cock-Up Shock

It shouldn't and, to be honest, doesn't surprise me to find out that the hacks over at the Daily Mail don't have the first clue about what a theory actually is when talking about science.

A story there today, Pupils 'confused by science lessons in creationism' gets it very wrong in the wording of a poll associated with the story:

Should creationism be taught as truth or theory?

• It should be truth
• It's all theory

I think that's got to be the most biased set of answers I've ever seen from a poll but, in this case, it would appear that it's more to do with ignorance on the part of the person setting it as opposed to it being down to a deliberate attempt to get the answer they want.

Is it any wonder that the readership of the paper then make comments such as

The fact is nobody knows anything because theories are just thoughts or ideas and nothing more...Monkeys are cute and will never be humans.

Evolution theories change every other week because they haven't a clue really. Remember the big bang?

I really do not see what the Royal Society are getting all steamed up about! They admit that Darwin's theroy is just that - a theory.

And so on, that's just a random sample. Thankfully there are a couple of comments made against that story that actually point out what "theory" actually means.