Creationism - National Center for Science Education

There are also other Australian creationist groups including branches of the
Evolution Protest Movement and local groups.
For a number of reasons, The Netherlands has been more receptive to creationism
than other continental European nations. Though much of Dutch society is highly secular
and cosmopolitan, the Dutch Reformed Church, conservative and strongly Calvinist,
remains an important influence. Religious as well as state-run schools are supported by
public taxes; consequently, there is much autonomy and freedom of choice as far as
curriculum, and creationism is espoused in many religious schools. Ouweneel (1985)
explained that creationism has an easier time in some ways in the Netherlands:
creationists can found their own Christian schools and write their own creationist
curriculum, and it is all subsidized by the state.
In 1974, businessman Frederick Kerkhof founded the Foundation for the
Advancement of Studies Faithful to the Bible (Stichting tot Bevordering van
Bijbelgetrouwe Wetenschap). Willem J. Ouweneel, the most prominent Dutch
creationist, was a geneticist and embryologist at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
until 1976. In 1975 he became editor of Bijbel en Wetenschap, the journal of Kerkhof’s
organization. Ouweneel was a co-founder, in 1977, of Evangelical College in
Amersfoort, where he teaches philosophy and psychology. Evangelical College teaches a
strictly biblical approach in all subjects, including natural and social sciences and the
humanities, and was created “on the initiative” of Kerkhof’s creationist Foundation in
order to counter the liberalism, atheism and evolutionist prevalent at other Dutch
universities (Ouweneel 1978:2). Ouweneel’s creationist writings began in 1974 with two
booklets What Is the Truth: Creation or Evolution? and Notes on Genesis One, the first
of which a hundred thousand copies were printed, and both of which are available in
several languages. Operation Superman (1975), is, according to Ouweneel, his “major
book”; he says it quickly sold out and that “one of the best known theologians in Holland
said that it broke the power and monopoly of the evolution doctrine in this country”
(1978:2). Other books by Ouweneel include The Ark in Agitation (1976), on Flood
Geology, and Youth in a Dying Age (1977), on the “philosophical and moral
consequences of the evolution doctrine.” Ouweneel has spoken at Bible-Science
conferences in the U.S. As of a few years ago, he was pursuing a second doctorate in
philosophical anthropology.
Ouweneel is most widely known in America as one of the featured scientists on
the Films for Christ Origins film series, in which, as a geneticist, he explains that
mutations are always damaging, and cannot result in improvement, as demanded by
evolution. The six-part Origins series was in fact a joint Dutch-American effort. It was
co-produced by the Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Company (Evangelische Omroep),
and is based on their Dutch television series. Willem Glashouwer, a researcher for the
Origins films (and, along with Ouweneel, a scriptwriter), co-authored a book with
Ouweneel, Het Onstaan van der Wereld (1980; “The Beginning of the World”),
published by Evangelische Omroep. The lavishly illustrated book by Josh McDowell and
Don Stewart of Campus Crusade for Christ, The Creation (1984), is “adapted from”
Glashouwer and Ouweneel’s book. 31
31 The McDowell and Stewart book is part of Campus Crusade for Christ’s Family Handbook of Christian
Knowledge series. McDowell, a leader of Campus Crusade and series editor, is listed as first author, but
Stewart is described as “author.” The book contains much material from the Origins film series. It is