This understanding, though popular in some quarters, is universally rejected by mainstream biblical scholarship. The recent resurgence of this view is not due to new supporting evidence but to the new-found popularity of sectarian fundamentalism and the growing political power of the Religious Right. Proponents of creationism aim to compel public schools to introduce students to their alternative theory to evolution. This is an obvious attempt by the Religious Right to introduce sectarian religious dogma into public schools disguised as science. Who is to say which theory is correct.
Evolution is a theory in the same sense that gravity is a theory.
It is a hypothesis so well proven, so tested and retested, that it has become a basic principle of modern science. The only basic principle in creationism is the attempt to prove the scientific accuracy of the poetic accounts of Genesis. They seek to validate their religious beliefs with their muddled use of scientific language. History is filled with religious authorities threatened by new scientific knowledge. Once, heretics could lose their lives for denying that the Sun revolved around a flat earth.