If you poke an IDer enough, eventually they will (probably 99+%) say God is the designer. The aliens or space hippies are a red herring. Somewhere less than 15 billion years ago life arose somewhere, and probably many millions of somewheres. At each of those origin events there is only one question: Did that life arise by natural chemical mechanisms (i.e. Abiogenesis), or was it zapped into its designed existence by a god? These are the only two choices as I see it. The designer of ID is a god, or there is no God involved in the origin of life, and subsequently evolution.
If there are other possibilities, I'd like to hear them.
Then that goes beyond ID as I understand it. I am also told that non-Christians hold to ID as well.
I appreciate the discussion. In any case, whether ID is religious or not makes little difference to me. The debate is in and of itself religious, as evolution which is atheistic is taught as fact in 100% of public schools in America. All other theories are banned with a fervor that goes beyond science.
Consider the intensely personal tone of the ID threads on FR. I've seen some incredibly nasty posts by evolutionists on this forum. Perhaps others have engaged in that as well, I don't know.