Author Archives: Joel Lai

BSF Genesis Lesson 7 Reflections

Reading Genesis 9:18-11:9 We last stop with the covenant that God made with Noah and every living creature, promising that the waters shall never become a flood to destroy all flesh (Genesis 9:15). All seems good right? Evil was eradicated, the world can continue on the “good” trajectory that should come after the flood. YouContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 7 Reflections”

BSF Genesis Lesson 6 Reflections

Reading Genesis 8-9:17 If you count the number of days that Noah stayed in the ark, it totals ~370 days (I don’t want to debate the exact number of days as it’s meaningless). God only informed Noah that the rain that He was going to sent is 40 days (and nights). Little did Noah expectContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 6 Reflections”

BSF Genesis Lesson 5 Reflections

Reading Genesis 5-7 Chapter 5 records the genealogy from Adam to the generation after Noah. Of the many people described in these generations, only Enoch’s life was described in a little more detail. What’s the point of living hundreds of years, if no other detail was mentioned? In fact, the only additional detail, but aContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 5 Reflections”

BSF Genesis Lesson 3 & 4 Reflections

Reading Genesis 3-4 I shall take the next 2 lessons together because I am and will be away for reservist. Chapters 3 and 4 reveal the consequence of misusing the God-given gift of choice. We see how the “only thing” that differentiates man from other created creatures [a recap: man being created in the imageContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 3 & 4 Reflections”

BSF Genesis Lesson 2 Reflections

Reading Genesis 1:26-2:25 Today’s reflections will be a short one. God introduces man, into His creation, both on earth and heaven. 2 things jump at me: Imago Dei – Created in the image of God.Genesis 1:26-31 talks about how humanity is created in the image of God or in his likeness. This is the onlyContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 2 Reflections”

BSF Genesis Lesson 1 Reflections

Reading: Genesis 1:1-25 This week for BSF, we embarked on a new study on the book of Genesis. While all textbook starts with a light introduction of what is to come, the Bible does not do that. Just the first Chapter alone brings out a large number of questions that would take some time toContinue reading “BSF Genesis Lesson 1 Reflections”

GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (III) SMC, should it stay?

Although the General Election happened 2 weeks ago, I still have some things to say. These are not specific to GE2020, but relate to voting in general (in Singapore’s context). One of the talking points from GE2020 is to abolish the Group Representative Constituency (GRC) system. There is a difference between abolishing and changing theContinue reading “GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (III) SMC, should it stay?”

GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (II) Problems with FPTP

A week after GE2020, there’s still a bit of chatter regarding the elections. Before I address the problems with first past the post, let’s just look at the results of the elections. There are many websites that have published reliable results to the elections, including Wikipedia. But what I would like to present is, whatContinue reading “GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (II) Problems with FPTP”

GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (I)

It’s time for eligible Singaporeans to head to the polling booths once again. A once-in-five/six-year event takes place in the middle of a national epidemic. But that is not what I want to talk about today. For the unacquainted, Singapore’s parliamentary elections is unique, in the sense that no other country in the world (thatContinue reading “GE2020: Unrepresentative Democracy (I)”