Only 13 per cent of Dutch Catholics believe in heaven, survey shows

A major survey on religion in the Netherlands has found that only 13 per cent of Dutch Catholics believe in the existence of heaven and fewer than half accept Jesus as the son of God.

God in the Netherlands - the poll of 2,100 people taken by two leading universities every 10 years since 1966 - showed fewer than a third of the Dutch were believers, with 25 per cent identifying as Christians.

The survey showed 14 per cent believed in a personal God, 28 per cent were “somethingists” who believed in a vague higher power and 58 per cent were agnostic or atheist.

Almost all the statistics indicated belief was down from the last survey in 2006, even among practising Christians. The secularising trend was weaker among Protestants and small evangelical churches. Other religions, especially Islam, showed some growth.

“For many Dutch, Christianity has become an unknown or exotic world,” said the Christian broadcaster KRO-NCRV, noting that 82 per cent told the pollsters they had never or very rarely entered a church.

Bishop Gerard de Korte, recently transferred from Groningen to the largest Dutch Catholic diocese in ’s-Hertogenbosch, looked for a silver lining in the poll.

“Perhaps in the end only 10 per cent of the Dutch are Christians. But if that 10 per cent is really the salt of the earth and the light of the world, that will really have an impact on society,” he told the broadcaster.

The survey also found support for the separation of church and state, with a majority saying that politics and education should not be influenced by religion.