I recognize the irony of this post, but…

Well it turns out that Fred 'God Hates Fags' Phelps and his band of retards (also known as the Westboro Baptist Church) have decided that they're going to protest outside the San Diego Comic Con. As well as preaching hate against homosexuals and crashing the funerals of servicemen who were killed in action, he's now decided that comicbooks are evil…(From what I can gather his reasoning is people are reading comics when they should be reading the bible).

Now, I could spend the next five hundred words talking about what a psychopathic, hate-filled lunatic Phelps is. I could spend another 500 words picking apart his logic and pointing out what a clueless smacktard he is. I could also point out that from the way he behaves, he should probably read his Bible a touch more closely…but that would be pointless. So instead, let's take a bit of good out of this and use him as an example.

My attitude towards religion has changed dramatically over the past few years. I was raised as a good Catholic boy, went to mass every Sunday, then decided that the whole thing didn't make a bit of sense, got seriously pissed off about a lot of how the Catholic church was run… and over a period of a few years went from 'mainstream religious', to agnostic, until I ended up where I am now as an atheist.

Yes, I'll admit that I had a real anti-religion phase, I thought the whole thing was a waste of time for easily deluded people and used people like Fred Phelps as a reason for why religion was a bad thing.

Then, about a year ago, I realized I was taking part in something that seriously pissed me off when I was on the receiving end. For example, when gaming came under heavy fire, it used to seriously annoy me that people like Jack Thompson were taking the absolute worst, miniscule minority of gamers and painting us all with the same brush. It appears to be something the human race has hardwired in…we judge any group of people we disagree with by the worst of their number.

I'll be completely honest, it was mostly fellow blogger Evan who changed my mind. From reading his blog for five years I discovered he was a guy who had a very similar world view to me. I also discovered he was the exact opposite of someone like Phelps. Whereas Phelps uses his religion as an excuse to hate, Evan used religion as a reason to do good. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling the guy a saint or anything… in fact, I think my point here is that Evan is a normal guy.

Which is why I want to use Phelps as an example.

You see, Phelps is proof that no matter how good something is, it can be twisted beyond all recognition. What Evan unknowingly helped me discover is that religion can be a good thing, and the simple truth is that you don't have to believe in any God or Gods to recognize that.

Basically, Phelps strikes me as a downright evil, twisted mother fucker who has taken Christianity and twisted it into something it's not. He uses religion as a reason to hate people while freeing himself from any guilt. He doesn't gatecrash the funerals of servicemen to spread any kind of message…he does it because he gets a sick and twisted kick out of upsetting and hurting people. If he wasn't 'religious', he'd be spouting KKK 'science' that black people are inferior or protesting outside special schools about how mentally handicapped people are genetically inferior and should be culled.

Yeah, I'm going to invoke 'Godwin's Law'. If the guy was around in the 1930's, he'd be a Nazi…not for any political reasons, but because with an insecurity complex as gargantuan as his, he just needs a target to hate and feel superior to.

So what's my point?

My point is this: Don't use Phelps as an example of why religion is wrong. Recognize him for what he is: An attention seeking, sick-minded, pathetic individual who is so weak and insecure he feels the need to hate people in order to feel superior. He's not representative of religious people, he's co-opted religion in order to spread his sick, twisted message of hate.

What I'm saying is don't play his game.

There's only one way to deal with people like Phelps, and that's to deny them exactly what they're after. Attention. Just like Jack Thompson, arguing against him, giving him coverage is giving him the one thing he wants: Power.

While he's in the news, he's a big deal…ignore him and you turn him back into what he's been all along…a lone nutcase shouting in the dark

To close, I'd like to pass along something I heard on a Podcast today that gave me the perfect state of mind to deal with people like Phelps and expose them for what they actually are: The next time you feel the need to argue against someone like Phelps, ask yourself one simple question:

If this guy was wearing a tinfoil hat, would I bother arguing with him?

That's who Phelps, and everyone like him, actually is…just a lunatic who lost his tinfoil hat somewhere.