MOYERS DRAWS OUT AUTHORS' TAKES ON `FAITH AND REASON'.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

`Religion, at its best, has given people profound solace in the travails of life,'' Salman Rushdie says to Bill Moyers in Friday's episode of the provocative series ``Faith and Reason''; ``at its worst, it murders people.''

That comment could serve as the series' overarching theme, which provides insight into an issue vexing much of the world. Today, religion informs geopolitical politics. Faith for many is no longer just a private practice, but an active response to the world's ills. Problems arise when an intolerance of others' views informs one's own beliefs.

Hence, Moyers' interviews with a number of authors -- devout and otherwise -- on this most profound of issues. It's evident through those he chooses to interview -- liberal Christians; atheists and agnostics sympathetic to believers -- that the series seeks to achieve a middle ground in which all can accept, if not embrace, conflicting philosophies.

Rushdie, the onetime target of a Muslim fatwa beacause of his novel ``The Satanic Verses,'' sets the tone for this series with his observations on the attacks that extremist Muslims have made on free speech of late, particularly the fatal riots that resulted when Danish newspapers ran cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. ``What kind of a god is it that's upset by a cartoon in Danish?'' he grimly jokes.

Moyers also interviews author Mary Gordon, a devout Christian who self-deprecatingly notes, ``People whom I admire slightly suspect me of perhaps sucking my thumb at night.'' She has harsh words for fellow believers, however, stating, ``Faith without doubt is just either nostalgia or a kind of addiction.''

As thoughtful and literary-minded as this series is, it could have benefited greatly from some judicious editing between the sundry authors' disparate opinions, or, better still, discourse between them.

Still, an interview with Margaret Atwood, whose classic ``The Handmaid's Tale'' imagines a totalitarian world ruled by religion, provides the sort of provocative thought Moyers most seeks. While Atwood argues for the existence of the soul, she also chillingly suggests champions of spirituality would be perfectly happy to deny proponents of ``reason'' their rights to their opinions. It has happened in America in the past, she points out, during the Salem Witch Trials. Moyers asks, ``But you don't imagine that could happen here?''

Atwood replies: ``Want to bet?''

David Kronke, [phone]

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BILL MOYERS ON FAITH AND REASON - Three stars

What: Writers tackle the big spiritual issues with PBS's pre-eminent journalist.

Where: KCET.

When: 9:30 Friday.

In a nutshell: Thoughtful and provocative.

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