Technically, ID has been put forth as a non-religious hypothesis (coulda been aliens, who knows?) on the origin of life. Since aliens are unlikely to be proposing legislation in our statehouses and atheists would have no interest, that's just a cover story - the whole notion of pushing ID comes from individuals and entities having a religious agenda, or at least a vested interest in validating a supreme being, admitted or not. And, yes, they're not pushing the actual teaching of ID in schools (I know, I know), just the mere (mandatory) mention of it before evolution is taught, never mind that evolution has nothing to do with the origin of life, only its, umh... evolution. While I generally agree with BakerStreet on most things, I don't accept his contention that we need the ID disclaimer to make public school a more "comfortable" place for children of religious families. And while I'm not insulted like Howard Dean was (just me or has anyone else noticed how easy it is to offend that guy?), I am rather disappointed that President Bush weighed in on the subject.
Anyway, aside from just about every other possible thing, I completely agree with you, dabe.
Cheers,
Daiwa