Philosophical and Theological Observations of a Christian Engineering Student

College is an important time in the formation of individual philosophy. It is a time of learning and a period of significant development in terms of critical analysis skills. For many of us, it is also the first time we really have the freedom to consider the beliefs that we were raised with and either take them truly for our own, or else reject them in favor of something else. Originally, the author composed this compilation of essays mostly for his own benefit. It was a way to refine his working philosophy by systematically reexamining it and making it more accessible to his peers, so that it could be tried in the fires of peer review. However, it eventually became apparent that at least parts of it are well-worth sharing with a wider audience. After all, there are relatively few books of philosophy on the market that are written by engineers. Yet, in its most essential form, engineering is simply the application of knowledge about reality to the development of solutions for real-world problems, and a man’s philosophy is that which forms the basis for the decisions he makes in life—it is the solution he has developed to the practical problem of how he should live his life. In this book, Mr. Barnes takes all the objectivity and analytical enthusiasm of an exemplary engineering student, combines it with the reverence of a devout Christian, and brings it to bear on a diversity of philosophical subjects, ranging from the relatively esoteric concepts of epistemology and predestination to very practical ones like governmental policy and the morality of self defense.