This short exchange between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Malcolm Muggeridge from Firing Line came to my attention thanks to Kathryn Jean-Lopez’s National Review Institute emails. Here’s Muggeridge:

An integral part to belief is to doubt. Now why did this longing for faith assail me? Insofar as I can point to anything, it’s to do with this profession which you and I have followed of observing what’s going on in the world and attempting to comment thereon. Because that particular occupation gives one a very heightened sense of the sheer fantasy of human affairs. Of the sheer fantasy of power and of the structures that men construct out of power. And therefore gives one an intense, overwhelming longing to be in contact with reality. And so you look for reality. And you try this and you try that. And ultimately you arrive at the conclusion—a great oversimplification—that reality is a mystery. The heart of reality is a mystery.