Setting: A hawker centre in Tampines, Singapore. Evening crowd, trays clattering, kopi steaming.
Arjun (half sitting on the edge of a table while checking his phone): Bro, the queue at the laksa stall is insane. I’ll just sit here first.
Wei Ming (immediately pulling him down): Eh! Don’t sit on the table!
Arjun: Why? It’s sturdy what. This one confirm can hold my weight.
Wei Ming: It’s not about the weight lah. My grandma always say, don’t sit on tables. Spirits sit there. If you sit, you either disturb them or invite bad luck.
Arjun: Spirits… at the hawker centre in Tampines?
Wei Ming: Don’t joke. Spirits can be anywhere. Table is where food is placed. It’s for offerings also, you know. Hungry Ghost Festival time, you see all the tables outside HDB blocks?
Arjun: That’s during the Hungry Ghost Festival. They set up proper offering tables. This one got sambal stingray and tissue packets only.
Wei Ming: Still. It’s about respect. Table is for food, not for your backside.
Arjun: Okay, that part I agree—hygiene. But “spirits will sit there” sounds like a horror movie trailer.
Wei Ming: You laugh now. Last time my cousin ignored this. Always sit on tables in poly. After that, his results dropped.
Arjun: Correlation is not causation, my friend. Maybe he didn’t study?
Wei Ming: He studied okay! But suddenly all bad things happen together. Like domino effect.
Arjun: That’s confirmation bias. When something bad happens, we try to find a reason. The brain doesn’t like randomness. So we blame the “table spirits.”
Wei Ming: Wah, now you sound like you giving TED Talk at National University of Singapore.
Arjun: I’m serious. If sitting on tables caused bad luck, half of Singapore would be cursed already. Go to any campus—people always sit on tables.
Wei Ming: That’s why so many people stressed!
Arjun: That’s because of rent and ERP, not spirits.
Wei Ming: You cannot deny tradition completely. These beliefs passed down for generations. My grandma lived to 92. She never sat on tables.
Arjun: She also probably never jaywalked. Doesn’t mean jaywalking invites ghosts.
Wei Ming: It’s about unseen things. Just because science cannot detect spirits doesn’t mean they’re not there.
Arjun: True, science doesn’t claim to know everything. But it needs evidence. If spirits sit on tables, we should see consistent effects—same outcome every time someone sits. But we don’t.
Wei Ming: Not everything is measurable. Some things are spiritual.
Arjun: I respect that. But think about practical origin. Maybe long ago, tables were expensive or sacred for food and offerings. So elders scared children by saying “spirits will sit there” to stop them from dirtying it.
Wei Ming: Hmm.
Arjun: Like how parents say, “Finish your rice or your future spouse will be ugly.” It’s just a creative way to enforce discipline.
Wei Ming: Eh don’t attack that one also.
Arjun: I’m just saying—cultural storytelling can be symbolic. Not literal.
Wei Ming: But even if symbolic, shouldn’t we still respect it? Better safe than sorry.
Arjun: That’s Pascal’s Wager for hawker tables.
Wei Ming: Don’t bring philosophy here lah.
Arjun: Okay okay. Let’s test your theory. I sit on the table now. If tomorrow I lose my job, then maybe you’re right.
Wei Ming: Don’t play play.
Arjun: Relax. I won’t sit. Not because of spirits—but because people eat here. Hygiene and social etiquette are real reasons.
Wei Ming: So you agree with the rule.
Arjun: I agree with the rule. Just not the supernatural explanation.
Wei Ming: You always need logical reason.
Arjun: And you always need mystical reason.
Wei Ming: Balance what. Singapore also balance tradition and modernity.
Arjun: True. We celebrate Chinese New Year and still use AI to order Grab.
Wei Ming: So maybe some traditions we keep for meaning, not fear.
Arjun: Exactly. If you don’t want me to sit on tables, tell me, “It’s disrespectful and unhygienic.” That I can accept.
Wei Ming: But “spirits sitting there” more dramatic.
Arjun: Confirm more effective for kids.
Wei Ming: Fine lah. Next time I’ll say hygiene. But during Ghost Month, you better behave.
Arjun: Deal. During Ghost Month, I won’t even sit on the chair improperly.
Wei Ming: Good. And now go queue for laksa. Spirits or not, I’m hungry.
Arjun: See? The only real invisible force here is inflation.
Wei Ming: That one truly scary.
Science Vs Superstition 
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