text: I am an elementary school teacher previewing this book in order to find a developmentally appropriate text for a study of religion. I am not religious and I strive to take a learner's stance and a scholarly approach to any unit of study that I present to my students. Betsy and Guilio Maestro have written other fabulous books on several topics; books that I have made available to my students for their research because they were accurate and presented without bias. This particular work unfortunately is neither. Their gesture was genuine and gracious, an example of the tolerance they wanted to promote. No deity need take offense; all were included in the pantheon of possibilities. It is however filled with inaccuracies and contradictions and finally a statement of belief by the authors.
  
  Though written as an overview of many of the world religions, this book culminates in a doctrinal statement of the confusing theology of religious pluralism, the view that no religion is objectively truer than any other. One point ought to be obvious, though: Everything can't be true. 
  
  The religions mentioned are like oil and water; they can't mix because they represent opposite and competing concepts. An appeal to their similarities doesn't help. We would never say aspirin and arsenic are basically the same just because they both come in tablet form. It's the differences that are critical. That's true in all areas of life, especially the spiritual.
  
  If God exists, He's either personal or not personal. He can't be both. If God is merely a cosmic energy, why ask His blessing? He can't hear or respond. If He's a person, then He's someone, not everyone.
  
  This book is not as much a story of religions as it is a recipe for religious stew
  