Jett Travolta, teenage son of John Travolta, died over the weekend, probably from an injury sustained during a seizure. Many people have put forth the observation that Jett was autistic, although the Travoltas have always denied it, and he was never medically diagnosed with the condition. As reported by Damian Thompson at the UK Telegraph, many Anti-Scientologists have rushed to blame the death on Scientology's anti-psychiatry stance that may have led to misdiagnosis and treatment for Jett.

Can we be any more ghoulish?

Whatever you may think of Scientology, there's never been any accusation or suspicion that the Travoltas neglected their child. They may have made different choices that many others would have not, but it is critically important to keep in mind that they still attempted to act in the best interests of their child. If Jett was denied medication, it was because the Travoltas believed (rightly or wrongly) that medications would cause more harm than good.

There's nothing wrong in criticizing beliefs. But there's a time and a place for it, and there are right and wrong ways of going about it. This article is a prime example of how to illuminate Scientology practices without resorting to the name-calling, unsubstantiated accusations, and just general whining that I see far too often in complaints about Scientology.

In the meantime, my sympathies go out to the Travolta family. Regardless of anything else, they have just suffered the loss of a child, which is something no one should be gloating over.

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The Church of Scientology has been vehemently against all forms of psychiatry for decades. While their arguments easily descend into the realm of conspiracy theories (which only hurts their argument, IMHO), they also highlight a variety of abuses or potential abuses within the current system, as well as our sometimes almost blind acceptance of anything labeled "science."

Years ago I was treated for clinical depression, and I was shocked by what my (thankfully) honest doctor confessed: treatment was essentially educated guesswork. While depression is theoretically caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, there is no test involved in detecting such an imbalance. As such, medications were prescribed in hit-or-miss fashion: I'd take a new drug, and afterward the doctor would either adjust the dosage, discontinue the medication, or add additional medications depending on my reaction. A single dose of one such medication put me into a near psychotic frenzy.

Unlike the Scientologists, I don't view this incident as evidence of a conspiracy or foul play. But it did underscore for me the very rudimentary stage our understanding of the mind and how to treat it continues to be. In a hundred years people will probably joke about our understanding of mental illness the way people today joke about lobotomies, leeches, and other antiquated medical practices once considered mainstream treatments.

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Some people can't stop talking about their faith because they are honestly excited about it and want to share it with others. Other people follow religions which specifically cite evangelism as a tenet of the faith. The problem is this: most of us don't want to hear it.

There's certainly a time and a place for speaking out about one's faith, most often when a listener has expressed actual interest in hearing about it.

So rumors that Tom Cruise is stepping back from his Scientology evangelism encourage me that maybe he's growing up, although I'm interested to see what the Church of Scientology's opinion of the move will be, since it cultivates celebrity followers specifically so the religion has a more public face.

Purity is a common theme in religions, although the definition if such varies widely. In traditional Christianity, virginity, chastity, and general disconnection with the material world were prime markers of purity: this is why Catholic priests are required to remain celibate and monks and nuns give up both material possessions and sexual intimacy. In Hinduism, different castes are allowed to eat different things and work different jobs in order to remain pure. In Wicca, formal rituals are preceded by a ritual cleansing of the area and the creation of sacred space within a circle.

Hundreds of followers of the Baha'i Faith in Iran found themselves once again without the national test scores needed to get into universities in that country. This is not the first time such an "error" has occurred. Reports say that students attempting to look up their scores were told by the system that their paperwork was not complete. Attempts to get this result changed appear to be falling on deaf ears.

Iran is largely a theocracy, where Islamic religious leaders hold a great deal of power. The country is officially denying any such conspiracy, but its lack of action on the matter speaks otherwise.

Religion isn't merely practiced in a church or temple. Religion is something people live. For many religions, the home as a place of worship and honor is at least as important as formal worship centers. For those who have no formal congregation with whom they can worship, the home can become particularly important.

• Weddings - In many cultures, the home - not the temple - is the customary location for a wedding
• Funeral arrangements - Funeral homes are a modern convenience. Many groups (Christians once included) prepare a body for burial and offer visitation at the home before the body is transported to a religious center or else directly to the cemetery.
• Religious meals - Various events and holidays require or suggest particular meals
• Honoring of gods or ancestors at in-home shrine
• Prayer - Some people do so voluntarily, while others have mandatory prayers to be said at various times during the day
• Ritual washing - Some religions require washing at particular times during the day or before or after certain activities.
• Ritual dressing - Some religions require adherents to wear specific articles of clothing, and the putting on of such articles often has its own associated rituals.
• Reading of religious texts

Religion, like everything else, is rarely static. As environment and culture changes, so too does religion. Sometimes the change remains internal, reforming the religion into something similar yet new. Sometimes it creates a break with its parent and becomes a religious entity unto itself.

Judeo-Christianity is rife with such evolution. Jesus strove to change Judaism, but his followers ended up following the new path of Christianity, based on his teachings. The teachings of both Christianity and Judaism influenced the formation of Islam 600 years later. 1200 years afters that, the Baha'i Faith came into existence in the same general region of the world.

The Baha'i Faith differs itself from Christianity and Islam by an important point. Christianity and Islam view their central prophet as the last of the prophets. Baha'is, however, recognize their foundational prophet as merely the most recent in a string of prophets, whose teachings will eventually be updated, revised and added to by future prophets.

"Alternative religions" is a term that turns off a fair number of followers of said religions. It defines a group of religions only by comparison to other religions. After all, if you're an alternative, you need to be an alternative to something. It is broadly thought of as anything non-Judeo-Christian, or at least non-world religion.

Those who follow alternative religions, however, generally did not embrace the religion in question as an alternative. Wiccans are Wiccans, not merely non-Christians, for example.

Many alternate religions are fairly new and thus fairly small and unknown. However, with communication technology improving every day, more and more people do know about these religions. Also, some of these religions have gained significant recognition in the public eye. After all, who in America hasn't heard of Scientology?

But I've yet to come up with a better term for these religions.

At About.com, "Alternative religions" is any religion not being dealt with by another Site Guide. This includes most, but not all new religious movements, (Wicca, for example, is covered elsewhere), and it is not exclusively for NRMs, as the presence of Zoroastrianism has already proved. Membership in these religions are generally measured in the thousands rather than the millions, although Baha'i Faith at the least will contradict that generalization.

December 21 marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, when the sun rises the latest and sets the soonest. The days have gotten colder (and there's about 6 inches of snow on my lawn), but we know from experience that the worst winter weather is yet to come.

At the same time, we know that the days will grow longer and the sun gains strength, and many people celebrate this time as a yearly rebirth for the sun. Wiccans celebrate the solstice as Yule, and mark it as a day of rebirth and new beginnings. Many other Neopagans share similar beliefs. Zoroastrians celebrate Yalda, which is the birth of Mithra. Light and dark are strongly tied to concepts of good and evil, so Yalda is also the day where the evil principle Ahriman is seen to be driven back by the light of goodness.