Everyone has beliefs. Yes, even me. We all need beliefs to fill in certain gaps in human knowledge; for example, the origin of life, our purpose in life or the reason for my accursed height. (or rather the lack of it) Some of us use a religious God to fill the gaps, some of us chose Science while some of us adopt a fatalistic approach which relegates uncertainties to Fate. If you know me well enough to be reading my blog, you should probably be able to guess that I trust Science to be the headlights in the fog of mysteries.

There can be many domains of Science but ultimately, Science must be able to answer the Mother of questions - the most fundamental questions about our existence and the driving force towards progress. Charles Darwin offered a very simple and elegant solution - the theory of evolution. Now many people underestimate the power of this theory; they ask how evolution can address the countless cultural shifts and revolutionary events during the course of the human civilisation.

Although the theory of evolution has often been vaunted as a biological crane (the theory of all theories), the essence of evolution theory can be applied to almost all areas of life! The reason behind its universal relevance is that we humans are biological life and it follows that our actions which lead to great disturbances in human civilisation must be motivated by our biological nature. (obvious but true) Biological life must have actions characteristic of biological life. Inanimate objects such as furniture must behave in ways vastly different from animate objects. For its immense power to explain, I have always stood in awe of evolution theory.

At the heart of evolution theory is the mechanism known as natural selection. In layman terms, natural selection in essence, dictates that only the strongest, fittest and most efficient can survive. Economics have Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. Evolution theory has the invisible hand of natural selection.

All biological life have one common purpose - to pass on the gene line via reproduction.

Suppose there are 1000 donkeys on earth. Out of these 1000 donkeys, 100 have only 3 legs while the remaining 900 are perfectly normal. Natural selection dictates that eventually all donkeys on earth will have 4 legs. Why? Donkeys with 3 legs have a disadvantage in food-sourcing and movement. Not only would the crippled donkeys be more likely to starve to death, they are also more less likely to be able to escape from predators. These factors combine to lower the probability of 3-legged donkeys mating and reproducing and a relatively high percentage of perfect donkeys will be able to mate and reproduce. Eventually the 3-leg donkey gene would be lost and all donkeys born would have the 4-leg gene. However, this simplified demonstration was done assuming that no other factors other than the number of legs affect the survival chances of the donkeys. In reality, there are many other factors such as muscularity, detection ability or even colour of skin. Despite the mounting complexity, natural selection still works seamlessly, quietly and automatically in the background.

Natural selection may be easily extrapolated to explain cultural shifts. For example, communism fell while democracy prospered. Why? Under communism, people were likely to have relatively lower standards of living and these decreased their probabilities to reproduce and carry on the gene line, ceteris paribus. Therefore, communism gave way to democracy which most likely offered a better shot at a comfortable life. As you can see, evolution theory is a powerful tool in analysing the causes of human events. Even the school administration utilises evolution theory unknowingly; latecomers are punished. In a bid to stamp out the culture of late-coming, they devised a system to make late-coming an agonising and potentially traumatising event. Since any agony and trauma, however small, will decrease biological welfare, students are expected to be trained to avoid late-coming and viola! The culture of late-coming disappears.

However, there are recalcitrant offenders like Low Zhao Xuan. (HAHA) No, no, they are not evolutionarily superior. Instead, their seemingly illogical actions may be attributed to other evolutionary benefits. For example, to Zhao Xuan, he may feel that there are more hot babes on later buses and by looking at them, he gains pleasure and welfare. Hence, taking later buses does in fact give him an evolutionary advantage! In this instance, in an attempt to pursue one evolutionary advantage, he forsakes another. (not getting owned by the DM) This phenomenon is said to be a side effect of an evolutionary advantage. Similar explanations can be found why moths tend to dive into candle flames and why homosexuals exist. (Controversial though, whether the effect is nature or nurture)

There is however one aspect of evolution theory which continues to puzzle me. Evolution theory predicts that there should be many fossils of Man-keys, Fish-frogs, the products during the process of continuous evolution. However, to his date, the fossils suggesting their existence are shockingly few! Charles Darwin defended his theory by suggesting that our knowledge of geology is far from mature and hence exploration works had been futile. Nonetheless, that defence was more than a century ago. Are our geologists idiots? I don't think so. Then again, it must be noted that there are some scientists who argue that the discovered fossils are already supportive of evolution theory. This is the reason why my faith is shaken. I hope this does not invite evangelists because I have more daunting questions for religion than missing fossils.


PS.
ZhanWen, cheer up!
ZhaoXuan, don't be late in NS or you will lose the right to drive me

10:46 PM;

Whee! I am free from the shackles of academia. Well, at least for a little while. As NS beckons soon, I figured that I should grab the opportunity to give my 5 cents worth of crap about things that I see every now and then. ( my friends think I will not survive SOTAC, LOL ) There are so many things that pass us by but we often don't or cannot afford to take the effort to analyse them. When this happens, we may become blind to fallacies in many things mainstream.

Most of the time, people take for granted that anything mainstream is 'correct'. However, being mainstream simply implies its orthodoxy. Heliocentric-ism was orthodox but today we all know that Earth goes around the Sun. To digress a bit, let me tell you of an exchange between a famous philosopher (forgot his name) and his friend.

Philo: Why do people assume that the sun goes around the earth?
Friend: Because from our view, the sun goes around the earth. I suppose that's why.
Philo: How would it have looked from our view if the earth was to revolve the sun instead?

Alright, if the genius of the philosopher has not gotten to you yet. Go get your husk checked. It might be empty ( or you could be a theologian? )

Having demonstrated that orthodoxy does not necessarily translate to truth, we must never trust completely what we observed in everyday life. I remember reading The New Paper last week and came across a curious article on the controversy surrounding the movie, The Golden Compass.

The article reports on the decision by some religious organisations to boycott the movie because the movie was perceived to have subtle themes which are contrary to religious values. (notice the bigotry of religion?) Since, I have not watched the movie, I have no capacity to comment on the saga and whether there were really any Anti-Christ themes.( yes, they used 'Anti-Christ )

Not as if I am interested to do so anyway. Remember that my issue of interest today is the concept of orthodoxy.

Zooming into the article, I noticed that a Christian had commented that she would not boycott the movie because doing so will proliferate conflicts and that faith is not about being argumentative. This comment paints a beautiful portrait of the calm and rational faithful. Or is it? To many people, this comment is a perfectly orthodox comment; people should not be in conflict, being argumentative brings immediately to mind of a scenario of flaring tempers and possibly violence. Doesn't it? I beg to differ.

I wonder why should the religiously faithful avoid debate and argumentation? Is it because it is obvious that their beliefs do not stand up to the logical rigours of argumentation? Is it because they realise that it is better to obey the wisdom of avoiding battling a lost cause? Besides, why is debate and argumentation even undesirable in the first place?! Debate and argumentation are the tools by which we bring conflicts to order, it should not be viewed as the bringer of conflicts to order. Only through debates and argumentation can we be exposed to the viewpoints of both parties and ultimately let the magic of logic (wow, it rhymes) take over and come to a mutually-accepted conclusion. How can this even be bad? Besides, debates and argumentation also have the ability to raise consciousness. Raising consciousness is one of the most powerful catalysts for societal progress. Think universal suffrage, abolition of racial discrimination and efforts against abject poverty in the world.

However, there is only a fine line between raising consciousness and being a conflict-monger. Still that does not mean that we should avoid argumentation and debate all together. Abandon a peaceful path to disagreements and forgo societal progress. You decide whether it's worth it.

That was an example of how much we can pick up from reading a single comment. My point, once again, is orthodoxy must not be taken at face value. If we commit the unfortunate error of doing so, we might just be taken for a ride by people who come along and claim that I am tall. :D

9:34 PM;

Everyone lives a great deal of their mortal life as a commuter. I've got to be really specific since I do not know how post-life beings travel. I am not going to publish any statistics on how much time an average person spends commuting because

1) I am lazy to source for that sort of crap.
2) I can spout some imaginary number and you would believe me nonetheless.

Anyway, I spend about 1.5 hours commuting between my Jurong West home and Bukit Timah school every day so it should be pretty significant in the long run. As the Chinese proverb goes ' Go up the mountain frequent enough and you will meet a tiger ', with the long hours I spend on the bus, I am bound to bump into interesting events. ( the concept of 'interesting' being largely contestable and subjective ) By the way, that proverb proves that the Chinese discovered statistics and that tigers like to meet the Chinese.

The greatest scourge of the technological era, for all its gizmo and wizmo, has got to be the advent of the MP3- enabled phones. The spurious child of an electronic affair between the MP3 player and the handphone, it has ensured that maximum damage can be accomplished by a minimum number of people. And we are not talking nukes and clumsy Iranian scientists. To my bus-riding readers, ask yourselves how many times have you been subjected to the onslaught of cheesy Mandopop while we were trying to catch some winks? O the torment of being force-fed their music! I do not mean to discriminate against people of any particular socio-economic backgrounds but hey, Ah Bengs and their equally socially-unconscious female counterparts should sell more pirated VCDs or shoplift more so that they can afford one handphone AND one MP3 player.

I think Ah Bengs and Ah Lians have got serious issues, they do not seem to understand that in this modern age, subtlety is in and flash is out; this isn't some stone age where the noisiest bitch and asswipe becomes the rulers of the jungle and get the most late-night action. This message probably applies to my neighbours; I want to thank you for blasting your cheapskate stereo system every afternoon.

Yeah. Fuck you, go steal some earphones because your music stinks like forgotten used underwear in camp haversacks.

Sometimes, I think that the real problem in the society is not discrimination from the 'upper class', but one that is so prevalent among the discriminated. Those people who whines their pants off about elitism are the ones who constantly make a fool out of themselves by preferring to complain, rather than work at the widening gap. Likewise, Ah Bengs and Lians unfailingly captures our widest imagination on how challenged our species can really be.

This is a true account. A rain-induced jam at Upper Bukit Timah. Cars honking. Tempers flaring. Tensions thick enough to be cut. Ah Beng whips out phone and blast Jay Chou's Initial D song, complete with tyres screeching sounds. Well done for successfully securing further social discrimination of you and your pathetic minions.

Need I say that this problem is also common on the MRT? By the way, Mat and tamil music suck just as much. If not more. Let us, people who are evolutionarily-superior, unite against the threat of people with grotesque social graces.

11:38 PM;

Confessions

This holiday allowed for quite a bit of friends-time. I was pleasantly surprised when JiaJun, a secondary school friend of mine, invited me over to his chalet. That gave me quite a bit of time with my secondary friends and ex-platoon mates. I must say I was kinda sad even though I managed to go to my dream school, NJC because the rest of my lunch-at-IMM clique went to ACJC. So I treasure whatever little time we can get together and catch up on old times and bitch about people.

Despite the inhumane amount of garbage that comes forth my mouth, I am in fact, a selfish person. I am your classic movies villain who will not give a damn about friends if my ass is on the line. Somehow, I have an utter contempt of the sacredness of friendships. I do not know when, but some time in my life, I became disillusioned with the idea that friends are important.

Sometimes, I feel like I have split personalities, one evil and one good. The evil part of me preaches the above-mentioned perception of friends while the good part of me longs for closeness to many human beings. Many times when my ass is up in a bunch, I can feel the 2 voices competing for supremacy. Unfortunately, the evil part of me often wins. Maybe my arrogance has given birth to my belief that friends are but a luxury. I like to think that I am great. Am I really?

Perhaps, it is the multitude of failures of human relationships but I have really lost faith in innocent human relations. Sometimes, I wish that everyone would just fuck off. Yet sometimes, I want them to talk to me. I am one damn guy who really cannot make up his mind.

Most of the time when I am seen merrying with my friends, I can sense an uneasy void in me. It feels like I am a robot programmed to interact and fulfill my social expectations. But behind the facade, does the robot really want to do this, does it NEED to do this? I think I am really a devil bound by the thick and heavy chains of social expectations. I can never truly be free and maybe that's a good thing.

Then again, there are really some people whose company I enjoy and cherish. Let's not use the label 'friends' but I think that my life is happier when I am around with them. Maybe that is a hint of a shred of companionship desire?

10:56 PM;

In all sensitivity for the bereaved... don't you guys realise that there has been an abnormally high frequency of accidents involving trees and the waters? I think that it is rather spooky, especially the incidents where trees fall on people. I guess this shows that the Singapore government is fallible too; years of go-green-plant-many-trees policies have backfired. Perhaps the trees are pissed that their brethren is subjected to chainsaws-induced genocide as NJC continues to use an obscene amount of tree-pulp to print mini-booklets of losers r' us candidates. No, no. Don't get me wrong. There are, like totally, so many kinds of candidates in NJC and you could not possibly infer anything from my insinuations. * cue Mama Theresa-esque smile *

Recently, I read from my friend's blog that the student council handing-over in JJC was attended with much enthusiasm and excitement. I really wonder why. There are only 3 possible reasons how such a gargantuan feat is even achievable.

- JJC councillors did a really good job.
- The audience were paid.
- The audience were robots.

I mean NJC students will display as much enthusiasm as a tiger in a vegetarian restaurant, should we be made to sit through the investiture. In my opinion, the NJC student council has not really fought for the students' rights and welfare. Yes, they had feedback sessions where people made complaints and sometimes they got addressed and resolved. But, I would like to think that, after years of English education, I am capable of complaining to the school authorities on trivialities such as spoilt-this-spoilt-that. Other than that, what they have managed is to pester and irritate the constipation out of me. The horror probably lies in that I am not alone. In fact, there is at least one teacher who agrees with me. For confidentiality's sake, I cannot reveal his identity or Putin would put plutonium in your morning coffee.

If I did not remember wrongly, the parting speech by the president included the Leadership Symposium as one of the council's achievements. True, it was a job well done but I must question- was that really their fundamental obligation? Especially if they had not fulfilled the basics expected of them. Perhaps I am being a tad too anal but that is really a piece of my mind, provided that you don't mind that the piece of mind of mine is in fact, a pissed mind. But who cares, you shouldn't mind my mind being pissed because I am obligated to have a pissed mind because it is my mind. My mind mimes me. That was random.

Ok, back to the topic. The first possibility was tackled.

I can assure you that we were definitely not paid to be enthusiastic about the handing-over. Hmm... At least, I wasn't...

The last one is easy- how can students be robots?! HAHAHA... Oh crap, why are my arms moving involuntarily?

9:13 PM;

I have been running so long.
Weary of wearing a clown's makeup.
Drained because I have to battle the roaring waves in my pond.
Weak from defending a breached castle.
Tired to have to hobble through the snow in my winter.
Afraid because reality seems too real.
Frustrated to smell spring which I cannot touch.
Wrecked as I watch myself becoming part of the autumn wind.

Mask cracks faster than I can put it together.
Fear that someone would see what is underneath it.
May tenacity favour me in this uncertainty.
May peace be with this defeated one.

7:42 PM;

I think that if my blog actually has a lawyer, it would undoubtedly sue my ass off for negligence. Anyway, 3 months or so have whizzed past which is bad because it means I am 3 months nearer to National Service. I know that me whining about National Service is so not me because 1) I love Singapore terribly and 2) I am in National Junior College which has the motto 'Service with Honour' so National Service should be the ultimate culmination of my school's ideals. Well, it's not that I dread serving my country but thinking about 2 years of botakness and being able to smell like a garbage dump, any rational person can't help feeling lacklustre at such a 'welcoming' prospect. I certainly hope that I would have an enjoyable NS experience and that doesn't translate to my desire to be in Commandoes or Naval divers. I would like to believe that I have a fair crack at a bright future and not die meaninglessly in some random military exercise. Hah. I am just kidding and I better change topic before I get 2 Man-in-black at my door steps and that would mean you would probably never see me again.

Anyway, hockey has been quite an interesting journey for me because it has for once, brought the spirit of competition to my life. For most of my education life, I have either been in some geeky club (primary school) or in a uniformed group (secondary school), I have never had to compete aggressively. In NCC, I believe the challenge lies not in competition but rather honing of leadership skills so I had quite a comfortable life at the top where I am protected by the clockworks of rank heirachy. As any economics student will tell you, lack of competition is bad. True enough, over the years, I have grown to be competition-adverse. Maybe it is the success that I enjoyed but I started to dread any contests for fear of shameful defeat and failure. Even when I play recreational basketball with my friends, I would be reluctant to play against opponents.

Hockey has forced me to stare competition in its cold and cruel eyes. Since NJC is not exactly a powerhouse, throughout the U-18 tournament, we suffered quite a few defeats, some heavy ones, to our more illustrous opponents. It was definitely torturing and painful everytime we lost so I would question myself what the shit have I gotten myself into because if I have not joined hockey, none of this will happen to me. But as the law of life goes, shit happens and I, looking back, have never been more glad to have gotten into that shit! I guess the turning point of my fairly short hockey experience was the humongous 0-6 defeat to Raffles Institution. That was the first time in many years that I have failed so terribly. My confidence as a goalkeeper plunged to an all-time low and it wasn't until 1 month or so that I finally got over it. But that defeat was an excellent lesson not only at match mentality but a tremendous one at accepting defeats constructively.

For example, when we played CSC, a far better team than RI in my opinion, we still lost by 0-6 but that defeat was meaningful and I was actually happy even after the loss because I knew that I had put up a more-than-decent fight against them, unlike the match against RI. This made me realise that defeats can be accepted more easily if I had tried my utmost best. And this has definitely made me a better goalkeeper and a better person. If any of you hockers is satisfying your voyeuristic fetishes NOW, I hope my shameless account of my adventure has helped to inspire. Nationals are coming soon. I would not want to have worn the stinky goalkeeper's gear for nothing.

Ps. Hockey Wei Xiang: What's your profession? AA! AA! AA!

7:47 PM;

KENNY PHUA


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