In the sense that they become manifest to human intelligence, and thus objects of science. More specifically, they consist of organized matter that behaves consistently under consistent physical laws. Consistency, intelligibility, non-randomness - these are all part of design.
Everything that exists is designed by that standard, in which case you don't really need an empirical method for determining design, I suppose. I don't really see what that claim gets us, but there you go.
Consistency, intelligibility, non-randomness - these are all part of design.
I don't know how you'll show consistency, but the following passage is very much designed:
qANQR1DDDQQJAwLxeFFT1Q63omDSTAEDwf11pfcZBSq1TXbjXcb7hPCBsQn1dsqj
vseZfwN7IxgD8miKcz8DFQpcIZXGPYsVLPIfh6brX3itzVS4qBgxjgiQiKZ7swmG
pIU=
=iEu9
Good luck with the intelligible, non-random part.