"Putting the best construction on everything" is great, but I
think you are being a little naive about the way in which ID arguments
are being used. The whole movement has the air of a religious crusade,
with ringing statements about worldviews &c. ID claims are being used
for explicitly religious apologetics, and those who develop these claims
know this. Johnson, Behe, _et al_ are seen as defenders of the faith by
many, & make no attempt to disabuse those who see them in this way of
such ideas. With all of that, it matters little if ID proponents say
"there's nobody here but us philosophers".
I already know the answer to my rhetorical question. ID
proponents are too intelligent to be content with creation of life by
extraterrestrial but natural agents. They would immediately ask "Who
designed _them_?" & anyway, that would just be another form of
"methodological naturalism".
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@imperium.net
http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy