Geen bronnenkritiek, nauwelijks interpretatie, falend politiek oordeel

Samenvatting

God in the Netherlands 1966-2024 is the sixth installment (since 1966) of an investigation of the religiosity of the Dutch, basically documenting the continuing decline of the mainline Dutch Christian churches from their peak around 1960. It is based on mass-surveys. The new edition brings nothing new or surprising. It is marked by a singular lack of reflection on the reliability of the data produced by its survey and hardly interprets its results. For instance, 55% of the Dutch are of the opinion that people ought not to be free to dress religiously at work. The highly probable interpretation that they are thinking of Muslim girls is not discussed. Dutch Muslims (some 6% of the population) were excluded from the survey on weak methodological grounds, although they are probably a larger religious group than either the committed main-line Protestants or Catholics. In the current political context, where extreme right-wing political forces all over Europe seek to exclude Muslims from full citizenship, this is a deplorable decision.