Keeping the doubt... Mary takes a look at how doubt and skepticism can be essential ingredients to faith. First, we hear from Rabbi Rami Shapiro - a rabbi who says he isn't religious. Instead, he describes himself as a curious, holy rascal in search of sacred cows to slaughter.

After that, a conversation with Michael Shermer, the founder of Skeptic Magazine. He tells Mary how he hammered Deepak Chopra (in his opinion) at a conference on consciousness and quantum physics. He also explains how, for him, the mind does not exist. The brain is just electric meat.

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My daughter, Ella, and I are deeply touched by all the cards and emails coming to us from Tapestry listeners. Your words of kindness and support mean so much to us as we try to deal with the unthinkable: losing our amazing Randy/Papa.

A lot of Tapestry guests have offered the same nugget of wisdom over the years: when your life collapses, it's really important to know you're not alone.  Thank you so much for helping to bring this truth to life, for Ella and for me.


With love and gratitude,

Mary Hynes

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To err is human...to forgive...is complicated.  Mary Hynes explores the ideas of forgiveness, confession, regret and apologies.

She's in conversation with Dave Bry, who has been writing public apologies for years to those whom he has somehow wronged. The atonement starts from seemingly insignificant events like throwing beer cans on Jon Bon Jovi's lawn in high school!

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Tapestry brings you something unusual. The show plays excerpts from a live performance by Canadian actor Kenneth Welsh. He read the full Book of Mark from start to finish without taking a break at Beaches Presbyterian Church in Toronto.

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This week Tapestry asks how important is it for worship to be 'fun'. We meet Reverend Dorian Baxter, who also goes by the stage name "Elvis Priestly". The former Anglican priest set up his own church called "Christ the King Graceland Independent Anglican Church of Canada".

We also hear from Jeffrey MacDonald, who is an ordained minister and the author of Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul. He's concerned that churches too readily cater to the desires of the modern parishioner.

Afterwards we travel to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, where the cowboy church is in full swing.

And in the Soundtrack for the Soul series produced by Kirsten Murphy in Yellowknife, lauded Canadian photographer Larry Towell brings us his song.

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This time on Tapestry, host Mary Hynes explores a strange subject for broadcasting.... Silence. It may seem a bad idea to base a radio show on absolute quiet, but not everyone defines silence as the complete absence of sound.

For Gordon Hempton - also known as the Soundtracker - silence is the absence of noise pollution.  As an audio ecologist, he has made a career of recording the places on Earth that are not affected by the sounds of technology, but he says they are rapidly disappearing.

However, one of the most pristine environments is right here in Canada in Grasslands National Park.

Grasslands National Park  (photo by onesquareinch.org )
   
We'll also hear from James Kugel, a Harvard professor and one of the world's leading biblical scholars.  What he calls the music of daily life suddenly stopped when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer a decade ago. Kugel was overwhelmed by the silence of being.
   
And we'll meet Omar Faruk Tekbilek  -  a man for whom silence, music and God are one. Tekbilek plays a type of Middle Eastern flute called the neh. He says his music originates in the silence between breaths.
  
 On this episode of Tapestry.... Shhhh.... 

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Here's a woman who says it's okay to cross the street to avoid making small talk. Susan Cain is a lawyer, a writer and an introvert.  On this episode of Tapestry, she and Mary explore what happens when entire societies decree that being loud, confident, and outgoing is the only recipe for success. While the Western world has fallen deeply under the spell of the extrovert, introverts have given us everything from brilliant literature to the laptop computer. In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, Cain is trying to restore balance.
   
Later in the program, the story of a man who is bringing the world of devotion to a bar near you.  Landon Coleman is another Canadian singer-songwriter in a jean jacket who is toting his guitar from club-to-club across the country. What his audience doesn't know is that he's also trying to include the philosophy of his day job in this music. Coleman is a recruiter for a small Christian college. But when it comes to singing about Jesus, he says he has to be subtle. How does he mix his music with the Good News?

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Laughing and praying don't often go hand in hand.  It seems that somewhere throughout the long march of time, levity has been leached out of religion.  We'll hear from Susan Sparks, a Baptist minister who's also a stand-up comic, about why she's on a mission of mirth.

And Mark Pinsky talks about his book, The Gospel According to The Simpsons.

Illustration by Matt Groening

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What happens when you want to believe but no longer can? Where do you find comfort in an impersonal universe? This episode of Tapestry features the stories of two different men who at one time had faith in God, but lost it. Even so, they continue to search for a sense of wonder and meaning in life.

As a child, Michael Krasny  believed God was real, close, personal, and comforting. But as he grew up that unshakable source of consolation became nothing more than the wind whispering. Now as an agnostic, he envies the constant reassurance that faith in a God brings to believers. Michael Krasny joins Mary to talk about his book Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic's Quest.

Prayer by aronki

Later in the program, Scott Campbell grew up a fundamentalist Baptist in Ontario and even became a minister. Eventually, though, something happened that lead to the destruction of his faith. In a documentary by Quade Hermann, we hear how Scott Campbell came to believe he was possessed by demons. And that was only the beginning of his journey down a rabbit hole of psychological trauma.

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You're relaxing on a cruise ship, maybe eating a fine meal, when the ship suddenly hits a reef, and begins to sink.  
 
It's the moment of truth: are you the one who steps up and does something to help?  Or are you the one who runs away?

We'll hear from John Izzo, the author of Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything.  Izzo believes giving a little thought to this - before any disaster strikes - can help ensure that people do the right thing when the time comes.

On this edition of Tapestry, we'll also meet Rudy Berghuys, president of the Royal Canadian Humane Association, the organization which bestows Canada's bravery awards.  Mr. Berghuiz has met hundreds of heroic people over the years in his job, yet he wonders whether Good Samaritans are becoming a thing of the past.

(Speaking of which, if you want to nominate someone for a bravery award, you can do so on the Royal Canadian Humane Association website.)

Also on today's programme: we'll examine the recent Costa Concordia disaster, and find out how it transformed one naval captain into a villain and another into a hero.  Italian journalist Anna Momigliano explores how the event shines a light on her country's psyche.

  The Costa Concordia aground, January 14, 2012.