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why a good number of theists oppose ID as a matter of principle

To the theist who is not familiar with ID, this program seems to be problematic in the two following ways:
1. ID makes it look like theism is grasping at straws.  For the proponent seems to find it necessary to refer to the miraculous to give a a justification of theism (here "theism" is the conviction that there is a provident God).  But to rely on the supernatural to justify theism seems to involve the assumption that natural phenomena offer no evidence for the existence of God.  The proponent of ID seems, therefore, to be oblivious to the appropriate role played by natural theology in the defense of theism against its critics.
2. ID advocates seem to be convinced that they can actually demonstrate that miraculous interventions have occurred.  Such a conviction is thoroughly problematic, for miracles are by nature an object of faith rather than of demonstration.  And to claim to demonstrate what cannot be proven is to make the critical listener suspect that theism as a whole is not rationally defensible.
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