[Shryke]

Just because someone can't tell who set the fire doesn't mean that arson can never be detected. Who set it and his motives for doing so aren't required for the task of detecting the arson. This doesn't mean that all cases of arson can be detected or that something that looks like arson may not actually be just a natural occurrence or a case of arson made to look like a natural occurrence.

And? Do you realize, then, that the "Science" of this arson investigator stops there?

And that is exactly why ID does. It says "It's life! It's been designed!"...and stops. There is nothing else.

I still can't figure out how this is supposed to be useful to anyone, much less "science".

[aruanan]

I still can't figure out how this is supposed to be useful to anyone, much less "science".

Really? How about this, given the probability constraints on life having happened to spontaneously generate and evolve to where we are today, the likelihood of its having happened just a single time anywhere else in the universe to a similar degree and to the point where any communication could occur is so close to zero as to be indistinguishable from zero. In this context interstellar radio signals that appear to be intelligently modulated would be a big deal. If it could be demonstrated that they were not the product of irrational, mechanistic forces but were intelligently modified and were not, somehow, just some sort of weird funnelling back to us of something of our own technology, then we would know both that there existed something by which an utter improbability could be overcome and that we were not alone. That seems interesting at least. As far as usefulness is concerned, a lot of discoveries were made the uses of which were unenvisioned at the time. To know something, even a bit of something, is one more datum that can be used to build up a more coherent, and truthful, view of the universe. That's useful.