Kam Weng On Blogdom!

I visited Bangsar Gospel Center a few times back in college days where I heard Dr Ng Kam Weng speak for the very first time... Can't recall the details from the talk, but I was inspired when he said we need to be more serious about thinking through our faith, that it's not always about happy-clappy, sing-a-long's.

Check out his new blog here. Find myself inspired again by this quotation here

I cannot expect our people to change overnight since critical thinking is a habit of the mind, a result of long-term and purposeful development of our critical faculties. Nevertheless, I hope that the following suggestions for a counterfeit detector will constitute a small beginning for those who aspire to become tough-minded.


Tips for a counterfeit detector:

- Give argument from authority a respectful hearing but don’t allow it to settle the issue.

- Seek independent confirmation. We cannot take the word of in-house ‘experts’ such as pharmacists employed by the manufacturer. Nor should we accept generalizations based on subjective personal testimonies or small sized sampling.

- Consider alternative hypotheses that attempt to identify underlying causes. Give preference to explanations that require the minimum unproven assumptions.

- Ask at least in principle how a hypothesis can be falsified. This requirement ruthlessly forces people to become concrete in their claims.


Fallacies are easily found in textbooks on logic. For starters watch out for the following:

- Appealing to ignorance, e.g., “Since there must be other worlds, there must be UFOs”

- Undemonstrated correlations, e.g. “the confluence of stars and the gravity of Saturn influences our moods and fortunes.” Consider the claims that “meditation and manipulation of higher cosmic energy promotes world peace.”

- Begging the question, e.g., “the stock market fell yesterday because of technical adjustment or profit taking by investors.”

- Appeal to ambiguous words, e.g., ‘cosmic energy’ and ‘astral vibrations.

- Flights of fancy, e.g., “amazing accuracies are found in Nostradamus’ message.” In reality, the original writings are couched in hopelessly vague predictions

- Selective observations, e.g., so-called discoveries found in von Daniken’s writings. His conclusion that the Ark of the Covenant was a piece of electronic equipment can only lead to short-circuit. One also wonders how the Mayan picture depicts a ‘spaceman’ if underneath his seat is a snake!


Asking troubling questions can irritate friends. More seriously, speaking the truth can lead us to challenge intolerant authorities. Unless we have moral courage we end up hedging our positions and lapse into fuzzy thinking. Taking responsibility and acting with integrity are indispensable conditions for tough-mindedness. Hopefully, our country’s leaders will also be more careful with their statements and public policies if our citizens are more tough-minded.


Some people fear that tough-mindedness brings about dogmatic zealots. Such fears are unfounded. On the contrary, tough-mindedness promotes toleration. When we exercise our critical faculties we become more conscious of our limitations and the ambiguities of human interactions. Our desire to work together in arriving at complex truths of life encourages us to discuss, debate and to agree to disagree with fellow men. To echo Thomas Aquinas, “civilization is formed by men locked together in argument.”