While religion inspires exalted feelings, while music and poetry stir powerful emotions, while both enable us to transcend the limiting boundaries of human existence, science is said to merely provide intellectual stimulation, an arid desert compared to the flaming gardens that the spirit so yearns for. Read more

The reason unfailingly given by the PAP government for any ruling that seems to put yet another curb on civic liberties is that there would otherwise be ‘disruption’. For instance, the Public Order act, passed in April in 2009, gives the police powers to compel a person to move on from a designated spot, and to refrain from returning to it for 24 hours, to avoid disruptions to the public. The ruling to impose a 24-hour ‘cooling off’ period just before polling day has exactly the same purpose—to prevent people from becoming too emotional and unruly, thus creating a disturbance to the public. Even when a rule has been relaxed to allow for greater freedom of expression, such as at the Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park, there are conditions to ensure that there is no disorderly conduct. Read more

Like the less-than-generous person I see myself to be when I dare hold up the mirror of honest self-reflection, I avoid certain people for no reason other than that they are unlikable. And one of the most unlikable persons to me is the whiner and whinger, no matter what other good qualities he or she has. There is the elderly relative who, as soon as she starts talking, whether at a meal or on the phone, embarks on a whole litany of woes going back to her childhood, more than half a century ago. There is the friend who is permanently stuck in the blame game, maligning her relatives, her ex-colleagues, her employer, the government, etc. for her problems, stopping only at God, out of fear, I suspect, of divine retribution. Read more

Believer: You know this well-known saying ‘There are no atheists in foxholes’?

Myself: Yes I do. And I think it’s very true.

Believer: You do? Now, that’s surprising! Read more

Even as a child, I harboured very skeptical thoughts about the credibility of fortune-tellers, on the simple logic that if they could really predict the future, the one who should most benefit from this gift should be themselves. Yet fortune-tellers, like ordinary mortals, fall sick from illness, suffer accidents, suffer financial losses, are betrayed by people they trust, including even family members, etc. all of which misfortunes they could presumably have foreseen and avoided, or at least prepared for, to minimize the harmful consequences. Read more