Why Do So Many Terrorists Have Engineering Degrees

Socguy noted that Slate is apparently a little desperate for some traffic as they are writing about"Why so many of the terrorists have engineering degrees, and they come to the conclusion that engineers and engineering students are much more likely to hold strong conservative and religious views than a general cross section of the public. Further, engineers tend to hold a particular mind-set that disdains ambiguity and compromise. Terrorist organizations have long recognized that engineering departments are fertile ground for recruitment and have concentrated their efforts there. A 2005 report from British intelligence noted that Islamic extremists were frequenting college campuses, looking for 'inquisitive' students who might be susceptible to their message. In particular, the report noted, they targeted engineers."

Re:Lets see

[lxs]

You forgot:

Awkward around girls - check

Re:Lets see

[elrous0]

Not only that, but if you're looking for someone who's also frustrated and ready to blow up the world, you could do a lot worse than to find an engineer.

Re:EE times came to a similar conclusion

[CraftyJack]

My question: Why do so many people with liberal arts degrees write articles about this?

Re:Lets see

[A. B3ttik]

This is a good point. The promise of 72 Virgins is probably much more enticing to geek engineers.

Re:Necessary skills

[A. B3ttik]

^This^

What the hell kind of skills is a Liberal Arts student going to provide them with? But I'm not surprised that the ignorant Liberal Arts majors who wrote this article didn't realize that they're useless to the rest of society. Even the terrorists don't want them.

Re:Necessary skills

[jank1887]

but man, they look really nice when they don't work. I mean, could an engineer really make the colors go together like that? And seriously, who uses red and green wires? Is it Christmas? A nice set of matching mauve is sooo much better at offsetting the grey c4.

I've heard...

[Thelasko]

They're all maniacal engineers. [wikipedia.org] *rimshot* [instantrimshot.com]

Re:Lets see

[DoofusOfDeath]

This is a good point. The promise of 72 Virgins is probably much more enticing to geek engineers.

The problem is that if you had two such engineers, they're compete to see who could get his 72 virgins stacked to make the strongest bridge.

Re:Lets see

[Minwee]

I mean, ask someone who has just built a perfect scale replica of a trebuchet why he did it. He'll feed you some bullshit about history and what not, but I think ultimately he doesn't really know why he did it.

Well, what else is he going to do with all those perfect scale replicas of cows? The trebuchet seems like the obvious choice to me.

Re:Obvious answer?

[MrMr]

So a muslim fundamentalist is really an atheist nihilist?
Are you a anonymously posting-modernist philosopher?

Re:Liberal arts majors too stupid to be terrorists

[oldspewey]

Or maybe it's that the liberal arts majors are already getting plenty of action, while for the average engineering student, the prospect of 72 virgins is pretty compelling?

Re:Obvious answer?

[rve]

Blame the widespread acceptance of altruism, by far the unquestionable default morality of the world, which promotes a "greater good" or "brother's keeper" value that supersedes one's own life and personal value system.

Ayn Rand, you're alive and posting on slashdot!

Re:And that is exactly the problem

[Verdatum]

World peace by getting all the mal-adjusted geeks money and girlfriends? That's the stupides....Actually wait, I kinda like that.

Re:Obvious answer?

[dyingtolive]

What is the sound of an annonymously posting-modernist philosopher posting?

Re:Obvious answer?

[Roger W Moore]

It's just that those terrorists without engineering degrees won't even make the news due to ineptitude.

Given the (thankful) ineptitude of some of those who do make the news I wonder if they would not have been more effective as terrorists if they had stuck to being engineers and built a few bridges or buildings.

Re:Obvious answer?

[indifferent children]

For those who haven't seen this quote:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Hey what can I say

[Beelzebud]

They just really like trains over there!