BILL MOYERS ON FAITH & REASON | PBS

Why does an ancient Eastern spiritual practice appeal to workaholic, frenetic, emailing, fast-talking, fast-typing, and overly stressed Americans? In this week's Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason, Pema Chodron, whose teachings and writings on meditation have helped make Buddhism accessible to a broad Western audience, talks about how her own spiritual search led her to becoming a Buddhist nun. "It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer."

On this week's Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason, writers Margaret Atwood and Martin Amis show how the imagination of the creative mind can help cross the boundaries between faith and reason and see the best and worst of human possibilities. Atwood's most famous novel, THE HANDMAID'S TALE, depicts a democracy transformed into a theocracy of God-quoting true believers who strip women of their rights. In a recent piece for THE NEW YORKER, Martin Amis imagines the last days of Muhammad Atta, the leader of the suicide bombers on 9/11. Bill Moyers explores how these two confessed agnostics come to grips with a world immersed in belief.

Why would two devout Christians keep to their faith despite their doubt? On this week's Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason, author Richard Rodriguez and scientist Sir John Houghton take viewers deep into their personal beliefs and questions about their own faith. Rodriguez, who is gay and a life-long Catholic, has remained in the Church even as he struggles with its position on homosexuality. Houghton has remained a believer despite his allegiance to the discipline of science that demands proof and the evidence of trial and error. "One of the most important statements you should be prepared to make as a believer is: I don't know," says Houghton.

Thought-provoking author Jeanette Winterson and hip-hop playwright Will Power turn the ancient myths into modern-day parables. "The people who do achieve great things, are also people who have fatal flaws," says Winterson. "Do we have the power to rule our own destiny, or are we destined to make the same mistakes as our foremothers and our forefathers?" asks Power. The interviews put viewers in touch with deep truths about the timeless human condition and raise the age old question of whether we are trapped by fate or can change it.

How can two creative minds reason their way to such different conclusions about faith? Two provocative authors Mary Gordon and Colin McGinn bring their views on religion to Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason. Gordon, the well-known American writer, brings her viewpoint as a Christian. "I like a religious perspective," she says. "It seems to create a language that explains more things about human beings than other languages do." McGinn, a philosopher, who talks about his own journey from belief to disbelief, sees the world differently. "I think there's too much tolerance of faith, and there's not enough respect for reason," he says. "For the last 30 to 50 years reason has been under attack."

"What kind of a god is it that's upset by a cartoon in Danish?" asks Salman Rushdie. Moyers' conversation with Rushdie illuminates the importance of the freedom of belief in what some are calling an era of intolerance. Rushdie, who was forced underground when his controversial novel The Satanic Verses resulted in death threats and a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini, discusses his work, his craft, and his perspective on the fear, violence and intolerance that grip our times.