I watched an interview with Cees Dekker the other evening on Dutch TV. He is professor of Molecular Biophysics and recipient of the prestigious Dutch Spinoza prize (which according to their own website is regarded by some as the 'Dutch Nobel Prize').

He has been published in Science and Nature about 13 times and is, according to the Spinoza website, one of the most famous Dutch physicists outside of Holland. He is famous for his work on carbon nanotubes. Last week, he was a guest in a Dutch debate program called "Rondom Tien" where he was introduced as the one who inspired the Dutch Minister of Education Van der Hoeven to call for a discussion between evolution and ID (eariler reported here and here).

Prof Dekker was interviewed the other night on a Dutch Christian talk show called Het Elfde Uur ("The Eleventh Hour"). This is a well-known talk show that is hosted by Andries Knevel and has gained the respect of a broad spectrum of viewers, christian and non-christian alike. To give you an idea of the caliber of the program, his first guest that evening was the vice-prime-minister of Holland and Minister of Fincance Gerrit Zalm. Anybody who's anybody has been in the program. Here's a link to the program (sorry only in Dutch).

The discussion centered around Prof Dekker's interest in ID, his skepticism of evolution via natural processes and a new book of which he is a co-editor called "Schitterend ongeluk of sporen van ontwerp? Over toeval en doelgerichtheid in de evolutie"* ("Wonderful accident or traces of design? About chance and purpose in evolution") which is a multi-contibutor multi-disciplinary book about ID.

In a weblog, Knevel touched upon the heated debate in the Dutch parliament last week after Minister Van der Hoeven's announcement. He also mentioned Prof Dekker's appearance in "Rondom Tien" (Around Ten) and the emotion which was displayed by the other guest Bert Bakker who is a member of parliament from a liberal party (D'66). This is what he said:

Such agression, emotion and bottled-up anger that came out[in the parliament]! Particularly from the representatives from the Groen Links (Green party) and the D'66. In the last ten years a minster has not been more fiercely attacked than on that day [...] Why such aggression? Because it has to do with a Faith! [Faith as in a religion] Richard Dawkins, the great evolutionary theologist from England, once said that the theory of evolution has finally laid a foundation for atheism. If there was one thing the Members of Parliament in question didn't want, was someone tampering with atheism. One Faith against another, in other words.

And about the show "Rondom Tien":

The pleasant Cees Dekker was compared by Bert Bakker (D'66 party) to the religious fundamentalists in America, even with George Bush himself. Bakker himself appeared to not to know anything about ID.

For more on the reaction of certian politicians go here.
*Cees Dekker, Ronald Meester en RenŽ van Woudenberg, eds., Publisher Ten Have, Kampen 2005, ISBN 90 259 5483 9