Europeans used to laugh with Americans and their religious zeal. During the past few years however, that laughter is slowly getting quieter and making room for concern.
A year and a half ago, a Dutch television station, the Evangelische Omroep (Evangelical Broadcasting Network), a broadcasting network for extremist/fundamentalist Christians, aired David Attenborough's "The life of mammals," a masterpiece of animal documentary movie making, but they aired it with a twist. The network had cut out all mentions to an old earth, and to the evolution theory, and for that reason, they didn't even bother airing the last episode at all.
After having been made aware of this, Attenborough made it very clear that this type of creative editing wasn't appreciated and the BBC promptly adjusted its licensing rules to prevent future occurrences.
Now, 30 Christian groups are co-operating to send flyers to all Dutch people disputing the theory of evolution by natural selection. They will start to send this religious dis-information this Thursday in Urk, according to
de Volkskrant, a leading Dutch newspaper.
As most religious groups, they know that children are most vulnerable to religious indoctrination, and the 8-page flyer is clearly directed at young children.
It will be interesting to see what the reactions will be, but it seems that the war on free inquiry and scientific advancement is becoming more heated.
