The humanity of Science Fiction and the inhumanity of the Baptist Church

My girlfriend asked me a while back what I find so intriguing about Science Fiction novels and my answer puzzled her somewhat. I said "their humanity". You see, good Science Fiction stories are not just about starships, technical gadgets, and fighting aliens with lasers, they're about love, politics, survival, and other aspects of humanity.

Often set in the future, in troubled times when we've reached for the stars and found various frightening and dangerous stuff, these novels offer us a good way to explore our humanity. Faced with inhumanity and perilous adventures in alien lands, we are forced to search for and safeguard those things that define us as human. Sure there are other genres where you can do the same kind of exploring, certain crime novels perhaps, but nothing can be so inhuman as aliens, and therefore it is inevitably so, that when humans are set against aliens there will be a lot of lessons about how to be human. Some people might argue that Science Fiction is ridiculous because it's not believable. But I say that it if you can see past the technical and unbelievable stuff, Science Fiction is a treasure chest of humanity that deserves to be opened. So give Science Fiction a shot. Hell, give it your best laser blast.

I finished The Winds of Dune yesterday morning and I have to say that it was really good. I thought that they couldn't come up with much new material but I was wrong, and I eagerly await the forthcoming The Throne of Dune. After that one, however, there can't be much blank space (no pun intended) to fill. In the meantime I'll indulge in the writings of Robert Heinlein, starting with The Puppet Masters.

I read in today's paper about the funeral of Brendan Looney, an American soldier who died recently in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. He was buried in the Arlington Cemetary in Washington. When exiting the subway the mourners were met by Fred and Mary Phelps and their Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, all armed with placards saying things like "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Don't mourn the dead". This church hates homosexuals and they crash military funerals because they believe that God punishes American soldiers because the USA tolerate gay people. This is the same church people that celecrated (that's celebrated + desecrated) the death of Heath Ledger by waving placards with "Heath in Hell" and "Fags die, God laughs". WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? If someone gunned Shirley Phelps Roper down, I reckon enough people would laugh to drown the sound of God weeping.