I'm just going to say my beliefs straight.
As an atheist, I do not believe in the afterlife. There's no heaven, there's no hell, there's no deity to judge you. Once you die, your information processing organ, your brain, ceases to function, and the information and circuitry within it is destroyed. Fade to black. You're worm food.
What does that mean? It means to me that the life we are living here and now, on Planet Earth, is that much more special, and valuable beyond measure. We have only one life, so don't waste it.
Fred Phelps wasted his entire life.
He had eighty-four years to do something with his life. He wasted it. He squandered it. He flushed it down the toilet.
He had eighty-four years in which he did little that was good.
He spent so much of his life building his despicable little cult.
He spent his life being a professional asshole.
He wasted his life hurting others at the worst moments of their lives, at funerals.
He squandered his life spreading bigotry and hatred.
He is a bad example of how to live.
We have only one life. So do something positive with it. Write a book, make some art or music. Tell your family you love them. Tell the world you love them. Make someone laugh. Make people think.
You've got only one life. You can choose to waste it, as Phelps did, or you can do wonderful things with it.
Make your life better for yourself, and help others do the same.