[general_re]

But ID does not specify any particular mind.

So? My point is that it requires a mind of some sort. This is undeniably true.

It looks at the design, not the designer. Period.

Ah, I could have rolled this together with A-G's post if only I had been quicker. ;)

How exactly does one have "design" in the absence of a "designer"?

[Alamo-Girl]

How exactly does one have "design" in the absence of a "designer"?

The two possibilities I mentioned:

1. If the whole universe is conscious and directing its own evolution of biological life.

2. If biological life on earth was seeded by other civilizations in the cosmos (panspermia).

[betty boop]

How exactly does one have "design" in the absence of a "designer"?

One doesn't, general_re. But "design" can be a scientific question in a way that "Designer" -- or even "no-designer" -- can never be. To enter into such questions is to enter metaphysics. The "pro-God" (theist) and "anti-God" (atheist) positions both are ultimately metaphysical conceptions that have no place in the scientific disciplines.