SOUNDING OFF:

In February a book by former Daily Pilot editor Bill Lobdell — which promises to be a tough read for some of us — will be published.

Titled “Losing My Religion,” the book was trumpeted a few months back in these pages by columnist Joseph Bell. Bell informed Pilot readers that Lobdell’s book explicates his journey from faith to agnosticism.

Several decades ago I experienced a similar journey — though in the opposite direction — but didn’t write a book about it. I wasn’t convinced that the world would give a flying fig about what I had to say publicly about my decision to forgo a strictly secular lifestyle.

American media are antagonistic toward people who lay claim to beliefs and values that were recorded millennia ago in Holy Writ. To media types, we’re dense, dumb or demented. But, when a believer like Lobdell encounters doubts and despair — which we all do — then publicly switches to the other side, well that’s more delicious than a Bolshoi dancer defecting to the West. Book publishers come out of the woodwork.

Bell predicted that the book will generate radio and TV guest appearances. Early reviews have been quite good — not surprising because Lobdell, an old acquaintance of mine, is an accomplished and thoughtful writer.

The book had its genesis (forgive the biblical reference) in a compelling essay Lobdell wrote many months ago for the L.A. Times. I was moved by the piece, but I’ve never felt compelled to toss my belief in God under the bus! I sent him a note encouraging him to contend for his faith.

“I agree with your statement that faith ‘can’t be willed into existence,’” I wrote. “It can’t. But, as [C.S.] Lewis says, you can ‘train the habit of faith.’ All things considered, it’s an endeavor worth trying.”

Lobdell, Bell said, couldn’t deal with pedophile priests and “fundamentalist” preachers who live extravagant lifestyles. Many believers I know are similarly hacked off. But what priests and preachers do has little to do with who our God is.

Doubt is normal. Lewis wrote in “Miracles”: “Many a man, brought up in the glib profession of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading astronomy to realize for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.”

It’s my sincere hope that Bill is experiencing such a “moment.” In fact, one of his atheist critics recently predicted that Lobdell will, in due course, return to the flock of the deluded.

I hope that atheist is a prophet!

JIM CARNETT lives in Costa Mesa.