Great question, Noah.

The main reason why many scientists brush aside intelligent design is because they A) Have heard that it's not science and just creationist trash and blow by it because they're already slammed with their own research; or B) They dismiss ID because they don't like where it leads.

By the way, we can absolutely support intelligent design via science, otherwise it wouldn't, by definition, be scientific.

This is an especially pressing question, given the recent release and popularity of Ben Stein’s movie "Expelled." Let’s try to answer it.

The following are scientific claims, supported by at least some and usually very much evidence:
-1- Ancient Earth Thesis: Earth is billions of years old
-2- "Progress Thesis": simple creatures have become more complex via descent with modification
-3- Common Ancestry Thesis: there is one tree of life. All life on Earth shares an ancestor.
-4- Naturalistic Origins Thesis: Life came from non-life