Causes of War

I really enjoy your magazine, and found very interesting your "Out In Front" commentary, June issue. However, I had to pause and contemplate your statement that "Precise real-time monitoring and equitable distribution of material and thus wealth [will] undermine the causes of war."

I recall a book entitled How to Enjoy Calculus. It too ventures off into the realm of philosophy at one point, where the author says that he thinks the mechanism of death in humans can one day be disarmed by the intelligent use of differential equations.

While I am a registered engineer, and thus involved with those things relevant to that specialty, I also have degrees in history and theology, areas of obviously strong personal interest, and have spent much time on those questions about who we are, why we're here, and where we're going, questions going back to ancient Greek philosophers.

Being an engineer, I long ago concluded for myself that the best answer among those offered as an explanation of our presence here is via intelligent design. Of course, one reason for that is that we humans have built some very impressive structures in our history, and those complex structures (for example, great bridges) not only required incredible theoretical knowledge and constructive skill, but typically require the same for their sustenance. Thus, intelligence is required from start to finish on such bridges as the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. And I find that line of logic to be the best answer to the larger complex of all physical reality, especially when considering such things as the human body, far superior to the most sophisticated aspects of that bridge, or any such manmade structure. And the best source of insight into the intelligent designer for such complexity is a remarkable old book that so many are quite unfamiliar with, taking their ideas largely from secondhand arguments. I find it amusing that you would think such a quintessential part of man's existence on earth (war), which is but a reflection of what goes on inside his nature (war starts in the heart) is something that could potentially be eradicated via "precise real-time monitoring." Wow! What a leap. I find the simple and clear explanation of how war started, and the only solution to its continuance, in such books as Genesis, Romans, and Revelation.

— Steve Womble, P.E.
Resident Maintenance Engineer,
Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Tampa, Florida