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From: DJ Wilson™
Date: Jul 9, 2007 6:41 AM


YES....it's me again and I'm pimping Noxious and our music video...AGAIN!!!!

As I've told you a couple of times already...this Saturday is the MEGA event!!!!

Noxious releases their new EP "REVILUTIA" as well as premiering the music video for "Paper King"!!! Now as you SHOULD know...this video is the one I've been working so diligently on with the awesome Garrett Williams!!

This is a huge event with new merch and two bands opening!! Get there early because you don't wanna miss Anderson's CALUS!!!

That's right! This is very important to me and I want all my friends there! So PLEASE PLEASE come!!! Support amazing local music and a friend!!!!

I (and the whole gang) have worked so hard on the video...and the new, yet-to-be-released, Noxious EP is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!!

DJ

Special thanks to:

Garrett Williams (you are just a God-send)
Ian C. King
Shawn
Leah
Jake LaFoy
Stacy Dirr
Williamson Evans
Nat
Sarah Kavanagh (for allowing me to steal so much of Garrett's time)
Alex & Linda
The Noxious Wives, Family and Friends
and of course -- NOXIOUS (for having faith in us and always being there to support us)

EVENT DETAILS
___________________________________________________________

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: NOXIOUS
Date: Jul 8, 2007 7:00 PM


In one week, NOXIOUS will unleash "Revilutia" upon the masses at The Handlebar in Greenville, this Saturday, July 14th, with special guests CALUS & HALOSCRIPT!! This special event will include a premier screening of the music video for "Paper King"!!!

NOXIOUS will have loads of all new merch for guys and girls, hats, koozies, stickers, copies of "Revilutia", "Noxious" & a DVD which includes music videos and a behind the scenes look at the "Revilutia Sessions"!!

Doors are @ 8pm, with the show starting @ 9pm. Tickets are $8 for 21+/ $10 under 21. Call the Handlebar @ 864-233-6173 or click on the flyer below to get your tickets in advance because this thing will be PACKED!!

We'll see you in a week!!

CLICK TO VIEW EVENT

So, several of you know and have seen that I've shaved My head. It's something I generally do at least once a year. However, this time I took it down really close...literally almost razor close.

Feels good. But I'm not feeling the look if you get Me. I just don't think it suits Me. Maybe if My head weren't so knobby in the back, haha...nah, it's not so bad.

But I'm sick of the same ol' hair style I've had for a little while now (of varying lengths)...so I'm looking for suggestions or examples. I mean...I've got a clean slate here. So, I get the opportunity to start from scratch and go from there.

Any suggestions or links to images of cuts/styles? I don't like flashy stuff, don't want hair dangling in My eyes and I don't like EXTREMELY boring styles either. So help Me decide on what to do next with My bald head, haha.

Potentially habitable planet found By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
27 minutes ago



For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.

"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

The results of the discovery have not been published but have been submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Alan Boss, who works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington where a U.S. team of astronomers competed in the hunt for an Earth-like planet, called it "a major milestone in this business."

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.

The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 1 1/2 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.

Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.

However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.

Until now, all 220 planets astronomers have found outside our solar system have had the "Goldilocks problem." They've been too hot, too cold or just plain too big and gaseous, like uninhabitable Jupiter.

The new planet seems just right — or at least that's what scientists think.

"This could be very important," said NASA astrobiology expert Chris McKay, who was not part of the discovery team. "It doesn't mean there is life, but it means it's an Earth-like planet in terms of potential habitability."

Eventually astronomers will rack up discoveries of dozens, maybe even hundreds of planets considered habitable, the astronomers said. But this one — simply called "c" by its discoverers when they talk among themselves — will go down in cosmic history as No. 1.

Besides having the right temperature, the new planet is probably full of liquid water, hypothesizes Stephane Udry, the discovery team's lead author and another Geneva astronomer. But that is based on theory about how planets form, not on any evidence, he said.

"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," co-author Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France, said in a statement. "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

Other astronomers cautioned it's too early to tell whether there is water.

"You need more work to say it's got water or it doesn't have water," said retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran, press officer for the American Astronomical Society. "You wouldn't send a crew there assuming that when you get there, they'll have enough water to get back."

The new planet's star system is a mere 20.5 light years away, making Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest stars to Earth. It's so dim, you can't see it without a telescope, but it's somewhere in the constellation Libra, which is low in the southeastern sky during the midevening in the Northern Hemisphere.

"I expect there will be planets like Earth, but whether they have life is another question," said renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in an interview with The Associated Press in Orlando. "We haven't been visited by little green men yet."

Before you book your extrastellar flight to 581 c, a few caveats about how alien that world probably is: Anyone sitting on the planet would get heavier quickly, and birthdays would add up fast since it orbits its star every 13 days.

Gravity is 1.6 times as strong as Earth's so a 150-pound person would feel like 240 pounds.

But oh, the view. The planet is 14 times closer to the star it orbits. Udry figures the red dwarf star would hang in the sky at a size 20 times larger than our moon. And it's likely, but still not known, that the planet doesn't rotate, so one side would always be sunlit and the other dark.

Distance is another problem. "We don't know how to get to those places in a human lifetime," Maran said.

Two teams of astronomers, one in Europe and one in the United States, have been racing to be the first to find a planet like 581 c outside the solar system.

The European team looked at 100 different stars using a tool called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher) to find this one planet, said Xavier Bonfils of the Lisbon Observatory, one of the co-discoverers.

Much of the effort to find Earth-like planets has focused on stars like our sun with the challenge being to find a planet the right distance from the star it orbits. About 90 percent of the time, the European telescope focused its search more on sun-like stars, Udry said.

A few weeks before the European discovery earlier this month, a scientific paper in the journal Astrobiology theorized a few days that red dwarf stars were good candidates.

"Now we have the possibility to find many more," Bonfils said.

___

On the Net:

The European Southern Observatory: http://www.eso.org

First off, we look at the root word of Chicanary - Chicane.

Wikipedia states:  A chicane (originally meaning subterfuge) is a sequence of tight serpentine curves (usually an S-shape curve or a bus stop) in a roadway, used in motor racing and on city streets to slow cars. On modern raceways, chicanes are usually located after long straightaways, making them a prime location for overtaking.

Chicanary is a word an acquaintance of mine derived from this racing term.  Chicanary is a fickle back-and-forth indirect action bedeviled by females; most commonly relative to relationships of intimate or social nature.  This indirect action reflects the S-type serpentine curves of a Chicane.  Thus, chicanary was born.

Example:  Female calls regularly one week, requests outings and is available; ie. shows an interest.  Next week, female is scarce, unreachable and uninterested.  The following week repeats similarly of that of the first week.  We have now formed the chicanary; however, this can go on as long as both parties allow.

It's My new favorite word (Thank you, Phil). 

I hope you enjoyed your Word of Tha Day with Yours Truly, Tha Deej! 

 

Yes.  That's right.  I said it.  I had the best week of My life last week.

What qualified last week as the best week ever?  Simple.  The Death Brand.

The Death Brand is a project that has been murmuring around for some time now.  My man Adam Minarovich penned this screenplay and since then it's been bound to make its way to celluloid (that's film, folks).  And, just as all things meant to be eventually become, filming of The Death Brand was finally upon us.

Duane Whitaker (Pulp Fiction, Feast and Devil's Rejects) came on board to act in and direct this feature film production.  Mark Hannah joins Kevin Woods to produce.  And the amazing Mitchell Lipsiner comes on board as Director of Photography.  Matt Green and Ricky Lee Leonard handle all Special FX and makeup.

Starrring in the film thus far are:  Robert Pralgo, Trent Haaga, David Alan Graf, Adam Minarovich, and Duane Whitaker.  Featured already is the absolutely hilarious and jaw-dropping Jeffrey Pillars.

Here's the deal, the way it's going down.  The gang came out beginning Saturday the 17th and we started production on Tuesday the 20th.  We wrapped on Friday the 23rd.  We shot about 35% - 45% of the film during that time.  From there, we all separated and the LA boys will go finalize the financing of the film.  Once that is complete, we all meet back up here in South Carolina to finish the remainder of the film!  This was done for various reasons including cost and Union requirements. 

Monday I hop in the car and head to Atlanta International Airport to pick up Trent Haaga and David Alan Graf.  From there, we hit up Chic-Fil-A (a Trent Haaga favorite.  Can you believe, Mr. Graf had NEVER had Chic-Fil-A before?!  NEVER!!  He really enjoyed it...I think he was quite enamoured with their lemonade (who isn't?!).  The guys sleep most of the way back, and from there we hook up with Adam, Duane and Kevin to get the guys situated.

Later that night, Jamie Sheridan Smith arrives and even later the amazing FX guru, Ricky Lee Leonard, makes it into town.  Everyone settles in and we attempt to sleep before the production begins the following day.  I don't think any of us got more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep that night. 

Tuesday is upon us and principle photography is ready!!  We arrive on location at 7:00am and help unpack all the gear and start setting up our first shots of the day.  From there...it was constant work, hilarity and sheer utopia!!  Working on a film production is the reason I eat, drink, sleep, fuck and even breathe!!!!  There is NOTHING...and I repeat, NOTHING...that compares to the feeling of being on a film set working with friends and people I"ve looked up to for a long time.  Not to mention meeting people that I now look up to or consider friends.

All I can say is that working 14 - 16 hour days never felt so damn good.  And I've never had a week fly by so fast.  I cannot wait for production to pick back up so we can finish this sucker and release it unto the unsuspected world.  The Death Brand is going to rock your face!!!

Friday rolls around, nearly all the cast and crew have went their ways home and elsewhere.  However, the hardcore few of us that remained had one goal in mind.  FUCKING PARTY!!!!!!!!

And we did.  OH DID WE EVER!?  From shots with friends to chairs that really wanna fuck Joe badly...we did it all.  Flying sidekick man, who's in debt and really pissed off.  A mayonnaise covered rubber dick.  A fashionable alternative for Lasik (however Ricky Lee argues that he can't see shit!).  And enough homoeroticism to make William S. Burroughs proud.  My friends...we owned that night!!!!

Fortunately and unfortunately, most of this party was captured on video and film.  That means, thankfully, we can watch time and time again all the fucking insane debauchery and laugh ourselves into siezures...however...this also means there's no chance any of us will ever make it in politics, American Idol, or the Miss America Beauty Pagaent.  Oh well.  The sacrifice is worth the reward.  We had a blast...and I've had nearly as much fun looking back at the footage and pictures!!!!!!  And no.  Unless you were there...you will NEVER see the pictures or video of that night!!!  (I am willing to reconsider this in return for sexual favors - which I dearly enjoy)

Finally it was sad saying My final good-byes Saturday as I left and knew that a few of the folks I'd spent the whole week with would be gone for quite some time.  I liken what I feel right now to what I imagine a week long cocaine binge and crash would feel like.  I've seen the highest of highs...and as I type to you now from My fucking desk at work...I can say, I'm feeling the lowest of lows.

But it's all good.  My friends and I are on the path to great success.  We will be doing this forever!!!  Our names will continue to be iconified eternally on the frames of glorious celluloid (reminder, that's film, folks)!!!!

I will conclude with links to the feature film production photographs I took.  There's several hundred and I've broken then down into albums based upon day of production.  Enjoy!!

The Death Brand Day 1
The Death Brand Day 2
The Death Brand Day 3
The Death Brand Day 3 pt 2

That's all for now, folks.  To each and everyone of you that were involved in this production.  I love you.  You're all awesome.  And I will always consider you My friends!!  May we soon work together again!!!!

I really wish I could go lay down and take a shit right now.

Here's some behind-the-scenes pics from the feature film some of us SurfAnderson folks worked on this week.  The film is a Hollywood production written by Adam Minarovich and directed by Duane Whitaker (Pulp Fiction, Feast, Devil's Rejects) and co-produced by Kevin Woods, that we shot in the outskirts of Hartwell.

Featured in the film are Robert Pralgo, Trent Haaga, Duane Whitaker, Adam Minarovich and David Allen Graf. 

The production was a blast and we all agree thishas been the BEST WEEK EVER!!!!

View the pics below!

 

 

The Death Brand Day 1
The Death Brand Day 2
The Death Brand Day 3
The Death Brand Day 3

Enjoy the pics folks!!!

 

DJ 

We all know the story of the Three Little Puppies, right? Oh wait...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=442555&in_page_id=1770&ct=5


Church school renames Three Little Pigs to avoid offending Muslims
by CHRIS BROOKE -

The story of the Three Little Pigs' battle with the Big Bad Wolf has delighted children since it was written more than 150 years ago.

But the tale highlighting the merits of hardwork and practicality has become the latest to fall victim to political correctness.

• Ban on lecturer who links Nazis and Islam

A junior school production of the children's story has been renamed the Three Little Puppies for fear of offending Muslims.

Organisers of a children's music festival have altered the popular characters and lyrics because of the multi-cultural nature of the youngsters involved and their parents in the audience.

But yesterday Islamic leaders condemned the politically correct move as misguided and said decisions like this were turning Muslims into 'misfits' in society.

Children from Honley Church of England Junior School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, were due to perform in a reworking of the popular tale which features the three little pigs.

The youngsters - aged from seven to 11 - were due to perform at Huddersfield Town Hall in June with 250 children from 63 schools singing along.

But organisers of the Kirklees Primary Music Festival decided to change the script to be 'sensitive' to Muslims at a recent committee meeting.

Committee member Gill Goodswen, head teacher of Stile Common Junior School, defending the move.

She said: "We have to be sensitive if we want to be multi-cultural. It was felt it would be more responsible not to use the three little pigs.

"We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs,' she said.

"We didn't want to take that risk. If changing a few words avoids offence then we will do so."

She stressed the decision was not prompted by a complaint from any school.

But Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain branded the move 'bizarre'.

He said: "The vast majority of Muslims have no problem whatsoever with the Three Little Pigs. It's always been the traditional way of telling the story and I don't see why that should be changed.

"There's an issue about the eating of pork, which is forbidden, but there is no prohibition about reading stories about pigs. This is an unnecessary step."

Other recent rows have involved 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' being changed to 'Baa Baa rainbow sheep' and Christmas events called 'winter' festivities.

Mr Mogra said: "How far are we going to go? Are we going to change the seven dwarves because it's discriminatory towards people who are physically less able? Where do you draw the line?

"Every time we get these stories Muslims are seen more and more as misfits. We have to accept there's a predominant culture here."

His views were echoed locally in Huddersfield.

Local councillor Terry Lyons added: "I can't believe that Muslims would be offended by this. This is pandering to a few extremists. People will take umbrage at this decision, making it easier for the BNP to recruit."

Mohammed Imran, of the Hanfia Mosque and Educational Institute said: "According to the Koran it's forbidden to eat pork or touch a pig, but there's no ruling about talking about them or singing about them."

Steve Price, head of Honley C of E school, said he had not played a part in the decision, but added: "We are part of the family of Kirklees schools. This family is set up to celebrate children's talents and I can well understand some head teachers being careful about not causing offence."

Chiquita Banana Company Admits Paying Colombian Terror Groups Over $1 Million to Protect Farms

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Americans don't know shit about religion, yet they're the first ones to use it as an excuse.  Not a surprise at all!!!

http://usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-03-07-teaching-religion-cover_N.htm

Americans get an 'F' in religion
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married.

Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says.

His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, argues that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths.

Belief is not his business, says Prothero, who grew up Episcopalian and now says he's a spiritually "confused Christian." He says his argument is for empowered citizenship.

"More and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on Thomas Jefferson's Quran.

"If you think Sunni and Shia are the same because they're both Muslim, and you've been told Islam is about peace, you won't understand what's happening in Iraq. If you get into an argument about gay rights or capital punishment and someone claims to quote the Bible or the Quran, do you know it's so?

"If you want to be involved, you need to know what they're saying. We're doomed if we don't understand what motivates the beliefs and behaviors of the rest of the world. We can't outsource this to demagogues, pundits and preachers with a political agenda."

Scholars and theologians who agree with him say Americans' woeful level of religious illiteracy damages more than democracy.

"You're going to make assumptions about people out of ignorance, and they're going to make assumptions about you," says Philip Goff of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

Goff cites a widely circulated claim on the Internet that the Quran foretold American intervention in the Middle East, based on a supposed passage "that simply isn't there. It's an entire argument for war based on religious ignorance."

"We're impoverished by ignorance," says the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "You can't draw on the resources of faith if you only have an emotional understanding, not a sense of the texts and teachings."

But if people don't know Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed for their sinful ways, Campbell blames Sunday schools that "trivialized religious education. If we want people to have serious knowledge, we have to get serious about teaching our own faith."

Prothero's solution is to require middle-schoolers to take a course in world religions and high schoolers to take one on the Bible. Biblical knowledge also should be melded into history and literature courses where relevant. He wants all college undergrads to take at least one course in religious studies.

He calls for time-pressed adults to sample holy books and history texts. His book includes a 90-page dictionary of key words and concepts from Abraham to Zen. There's also a 15-question quiz — which his students fail every year.

But it's the controversial, though constitutional, push into schools that draws the most attention.

In theory, everyone favors children knowing more. The National Education Association handbook says religious instruction "in doctrines and practices belongs at home or religious institutions," while schools should teach world religions' history, heritage, diversity and influence.

Only 8% of public high schools offer an elective Bible course, according to a study in 2005 by the Bible Literacy Project, which promotes academic Bible study in public schools. The project is supported by Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, a Washington, D.C., non-profit that promotes free speech.

The study surveyed 1,000 high schoolers and found that just 36% know Ramadan is the Islamic holy month; 17% said it was the Jewish day of atonement.

Goff says schools are not wholly to blame for religious illiteracy. "There are simply more groups, more players. Students didn't know Ramadan any better in 1965, but now there are as many Muslims as Jews in America. It's more important to know who's who."

Also today, "there is more emphasis on religious experience as a mark of true religion and less emphasis on doctrine and knowledge of the faith."

Still, it's the widely misunderstood 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that may have been the tipping point: It removed devotional Bible reading from the schools but spelled out that it should not have been removed from literature and history.

"The decision clearly states you can't be educated without it, but it scared schools so much they dropped it all," Goff says.

"Schools are terrified of this," says Joy Hakim, author of several U.S. history textbooks. She's in her 70s but remembers well as a Jewish child how she felt like an outsider in schools that pushed Christianity in the curriculum.

But she says the backlash went too far. "Now, you can't use biblical characters or narrative in anything. We've stopped teaching stories. We teach facts, and the characters are lost."

Religion, like the arts, has become an afterthought in an education climate driven by "the fixation on literacy and numeracy — math and reading," says Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a group critical of the standards-based education movement. "If the ways schools, teachers, principals and superintendents are judged all depend on math and reading scores, that's what you're going to teach," he says.

Still, it's a tough tightrope to walk between those who say the Bible can be just another book, albeit a valuable one, and those who say it is inherently devotional.

The First Amendment Center also published a guide to "The Bible and the Public Schools," which praised a ninth-grade world religions course in Modesto, Calif., and cited a study finding students were able to learn about other faiths without altering their own beliefs. But it also said the class may not be easily replicated and required knowledgeable, unbiased teachers.

Leland Ryken, an English professor at evangelical Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., tested a 2006 textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, underwritten by the Bible Literacy Project. Ryken favors adding classes in the Bible and literature and social studies. But he cautions, "Religious literacy and world religions are not the same as the Bible as literature. It's a much more loaded subject, and I really question if high school students can get much knowledge beyond a sense of the importance of religion."

The Bible and Its Influence has been blasted by conservative Christians such as the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Hagee calls it "a masterful work of deception, distortion and outright falsehoods" planting "concepts in the minds of children which are contrary to biblical teaching."

Hagee wrote to the Alabama legislature opposing adoption of the text, citing points such as discussion questions that could lead children away from a belief in God. Example: Asking students to ponder if Adam and Eve got "a fair deal as described in Genesis" would plant the seed that "since God is the author of the deal, God is unfair."

Hagee prefers the Bible itself as a textbook for Bible classes, used with a curriculum created by a group of conservative evangelicals, the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, based in Greensboro, N.C. The council says its curriculum is being offered in more than 300 schools.

Sheila Weber, a spokeswoman for The Bible Literacy project, says their textbook has been revised in the second printing issued last month with the examples cited by Hagee removed. The teachers' edition was reissued in August. The first printing was approved by numerous Christian scholars and seminaries and is already in use in 82 school districts.

Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, looked last year at how Texas public school districts taught Bible classes. His two studies, sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network, a civil liberties group, found only 25 of more than 1,000 districts offered such a class.

"And 22 of them, including several using the Greensboro group's curriculum, were clearly over the line," teaching Christianity as the norm, and the Bible as inspired by God, says Chancey. One teacher even showed students a proselytizing Power Point titled, "God's road map for your life" that was clearly unconstitutional, he says.

The controversies, costs and competing demands in the schools have prompted many to turn instead to character education.

But classes promoting pluralism and tolerance fail on the religious literacy front because they "reduce religion to morality," Prothero says, or they promote a call for universal compassion as if it were the only value that matters.

"We are not all on the same one path to the same one God," he says. "Religions aren't all saying the same thing. That's presumptuous and wrong. They start with different problems, solve the problems in different ways, and they have different goals."

Contributing: Greg Toppo

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