404, you've read the whole of the Bible and Quran?

Sometimes this really bothers me (the fact that we have to rely so much on other people!) I believe in God; I don't think I'm naive or have been duped into belief, I want to find out the TRUTH about life (this is a big thing for me - even in my daily lab tasks, and in my interactions with other people, I always want to know the truth). I think that belief in God brings me closer to the truth, because God is not simply a human, and I can probably count the number of humans whose opinions I would take as truth on one hand.
So, there's a link between science and religion (for me at least) in that both seek to find out the truth about life. Recently I've been looking for a book that explores the link between science and atheism - was atheism a direct result of the rise of science? Interesting stuff, must look harder.

sylvester, I agree, this question is pretty deep, well that's how some of us have interpreted it. Asking whether God can help us get our PhDs (as the original thread did) wasn't very serious, which makes me a bit wary of answering too deeply.
From my own personal experience I don't think there's a link between intelligence and belief in religion/God, and from searching the web (briefly) it seems that most studies show an inverse relationship.
However, there are intelligent people who believe, who have thought the issues out as well as an atheist and come to a different conclusion. We all base our conclusions on gathering information from various sources, from people whose opinions we respect, and then come to our own decision.

that's what I meant, only the laser reflectors really convince me.

I used to listen to Atlantic 252 too - didn't it disppear around late 1999? That channel is where I first heard Muse, on the rock show (?) at 10pm on a Tuesday...

If you've ever watched any of those channel 4/5 documentaries, they talk about all the stuff you've just mentioned SixKitten, and at the very end they talk about the laser reflectors that a little man in some lonely desert observatory(?) still receives signals from today. That convinces me to about 95%, but I still think it's POSSIBLE that the whole thing is a hoax.

yep, Dr Dan's been digging up old threads again, but we love him for it really

the caring one is cute, I think the suprised one's okay too...

On their website they say:
we will "not be bound to prevailing paradigms of social and political discourse"
we aim to create "a network of people who feel that the current higher education system stifles their abilities and potential"
we are "positively elitist and meritocratic. We wish to re-create the academic ethos that got lost in today's mass universities"
and
"We enjoy the ambiguity of being, at the same time, independent of the University of Sussex and on campus, of being research students but also student leaders and researchers of our own making"
Methinks they're a little too big for their boots. If they really HAVE been stifled, then I guess I should admire them though.

"please 404, can we have some more?"

hideous psycho is okay too. I'm sure we could find uses for it!

Hmm, I don't feel like I'm in a position to do something like that, and I doubt it would be possible for science subjects. I quite like having the support of Profs with decades of experience, I wouldn't want to go it alone. Their research sounds interesting though, something I often think about.

wikipedia tells me Birmingham. I thought they were German for a while And I'm not sue of Mel&Sue fame, I'm not funny :| (I'll anticipate the reply "neither are they" - boom boom)

and a vomitty green one...

Yeah, I can't believe I only discovered them two weeks ago! Any idea why they pronounce veins in that strangely foreign way - "veens"? All Sparks is another favourite.