Over the past few years, one of the ways that conservative talk show hosts have been attacking the idea of global warming is by claiming that it is a religion.  I was reminded of this on Thursday listening to the Howie Carr show, but I have heard other hosts do it as well.

I don’t want to get into an argument over global warming.  What I have a problem with, however, is these hosts saying that global warming is a religion.  The reason this seems problematic to me is that the view they seem to have of religion is that it is a set of beliefs that someone holds despite all of the evidence to the contrary.  These host all think that there is no evidence for global warming, so when they claim people believe it as a religion, they are implying that holding a religious belief is irrational.

I am surprised that conservative talk show hosts would take this approach, and I am even more surprised that their conservative listeners would let them get away with it.  After all the conventional wisdom is that conservatives are more religious than liberals.  This means that when conservative talk show hosts refer to global warming as a religion, they are in fact insulting the majority of their listeners, who are religious.

This is not limited to secular broadcasters either.  I have heard Christian political talk show hosts make the same claim about evolution, i.e., that it is an irrational system not supported by evidence which people nonetheless believe.  They even call it a religion.  Why would a Christian host define religion in such a way?

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