One in five Dutch people believe God created the world in six days, according to research quoted in Friday’s Trouw.

Protestants are much more likely than Catholics to believe in the Biblical creation story, the figures from research bureau Synovate show.
Synovate questioned 908 people about their beliefs. Their answers showed that young people are just as likely as their elders to believe in creationism. Some 25% of low skilled people believe the world was made in six days, as do 19% of those with university education.
A similar survey from the Maurice de Hond polling organisation also showed around 20% believe in creationism.
Liberal reputation
Trouw says the high percentage of believers explains the row earlier this year when a popular tv presenter for the staunchly Protestant EO channel apologised to viewers for misleading them by saying that the world was created in six days.
Despite its liberal reputation, the Netherlands has a strong Protestant core, mainly living in a belt sweeping across the centre of the country. There are two orthodox Christian parties in parliament which accept the creation as fact. Between them, they have eight MPs. One, ChristenUnie, is part of the current coalition government with the Christian Democrats and Labour.
Last week, a group of orthodox Christians began distributing a leaflet describing evolution as an ‘unproven theory’ to every household in the country.

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