A few years ago, it was unusual for newspapers on the European continent to publish articles on creationism, except when reporting about North America.
In recent years, however, there has been an increase in reports on creationist activities in Europe too. The Swiss weekly L’Hebdo (Feb. 4) has attempted to document the impact of creationist theories in Switzerland. Beside creationist ideas within evangelical congregations, journalist Julie Zaugg identifies two creationist associations in the Frenchspeaking part of Switzerland, each with some 300 members.
In the German-speaking part, the leading Christian creationist group is called Pro Genesis (founded in 2001), with some 600 to 800 members. It would like to create a creationist theme park in Germany and has already gathered money for that purpose, but it is still very far from the 200 million euros that would be needed.
However, Zaugg rightly remarks that membership in creationist associations is not the most adequate way of measuring the impact of creationist views in Switzerland. According to a 2005 survey, around a quarter of Swiss people did not believe in evolution, a percentage similar to that found in other European countries, except highly secularized areas such as France and Scandinavia. Besides Christians, creationist believers also include Muslims. Some creationist activists would like to see creation taught beside evolution in classrooms.
The proposal is unlikely to find wide support, but among young teachers in some areas of Switzerland, there are some (although clearly a minority) who actually hold creationist beliefs. In 2007, a schoolbook containing a passage putting creationist and evolutionist views at the same level was withdrawn by school authorities in the canton of Berne.
Aside from that, however, there seems to be no reported cases of controversies about creationist teachers: teachers with creationist views tend to refrain from expressing their beliefs too openly (while being open when questioned by pupils), except in a few, small Christian private schools that teach evolutionist and creationist theories side by side.