[ahayes]

Does belief in Panspermia ( i.e., a hypothesis that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the Universe, and furthermore that life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating.) count as intelligent design ?

No more than it counts as "intelligent design" if a species of bee settles a new island and evolves into several different species, or if our Mars crawlers deposit bacteria from Earth in the rocks that somehow survive and evolve into new bacterial species.

[js1138]

Does belief in Panspermia ( i.e., a hypothesis that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the Universe, and furthermore that life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating.) count as intelligent design ?

Panspermia is not in opposition to evolution.

Evolution is a theory of change in populations, not a theory of origins of life. Lateral transfer is not in opposition to evolution. Gene transfer is one of many mechanisms of change.

Regardless of the source of variation, some individuals will have more reproductive success than others. This is true of artificially engineered organisms as well as ones arising from mutation. Selection by humans did not protect the Irish potato from natural selection. There is not enough computing power on earth or possible in theory to anticipate all the possible ecological changes that can occur.

Even if the original living things were created in an instant, evolution describes how populations adapt and change over time.