PBS special "Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason"

Can religion and reason peacefully coexist? From a scan of the headlines it doesn't seem so. The world appears polarized, incapable of even agreeing to disagree on matters of faith.

Journalist Bill Moyers believes that conversation can lead to a cure for what ails us -- but not conversation in which people simply shriek at each other. Moyers, who describes himself as "neither wholly a believer nor wholly a skeptic," thinks we can move away from pitting reason against faith and give equal weight to both in our discussions. Science can illuminate faith, and faith can inform science.

He launches the discussion on a new PBS special "Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason," which premieres Friday at 9 p.m. The seven weekly episodes explore new ways of thinking about religion and its role in the modern world. Each program features a conversation with one of the writers who attended the PEN World Voices Festival in New York last April: Margaret Atwood, Mary Gordon, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and others.

I interviewed Moyers by e-mail last week as he completed last-minute editing of the show before its premiere.

cont'd...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/06/19/findrelig.DTL