Fatty made a good point--it's amazing how many Engineers are Jesus Freaks... I think Jesus Freaks have a strong affinity for order and tradition, and Engineers tend to like those things as well. But there's a billion exceptions to this, so I don't really know... I know almost all of my engineering buddies were religious at K-State. It might just be a Kansas thing, though. It really is the buckle of the Bible Belt. For a State that made its name on being Free-Thinkers and dissenters, we really have made a habit of conforming.
I think trying to make sense of life on your own without some sort of framework (usually religion) is pretty difficult. Some people, like us atheist/agnostics, don't really care enough about divine intervention or an afterlife enough to take what is clearly an intellectually dishonest stance on the nature of the Universe. In my opinion, religion is a fine tool for attempting to make some sense of your life, but you have to be honest with yourself and admit that it's utter nonsense. I think there's a LOT of religious people who know it's nonsense, but participate anyway. Your born-again Jesus Freak friend is probably not one of these people. The born-agains seem to love diving head-first into the mythology and gulping it down as though it's the Answer to Life The Universe and Everything. Tell him that he doesn't know the Answer and nobody does (aside from 42), and to get off his high horse and stop thinking so highly of himself.
I was listening to a sociologist who studies the brain, and he said if there were no pre-conceived notions of any religions up to this point in history, human beings would invent them within a month. It's just the way people are made. Being religious has a lot to do with your personality, too. Speaking for myself, I'm really analytical, and it just makes it hard for me to believe anything without some very strong supporting evidence. A lot of people will believe anything without much in the way of facts to support it. Salesmen and Politicians rely on the fact that this is how most people make decisions--very emotional, not so much facty.