The planet Earth is in an extremely fine tuned, razor edge balance. Very small seemingly insignificant changes in this balance have the potential to upset the entire structure. Vast, storms effecting large portions of the surface of the planet can be caused by temperature changes measured in single degrees. One of the smallest organisms, a virus, can destroy entire species. Still, however, The ecosystem is so famously adaptive that on the other hand there is really nothing short of total obliteration of the planet that would destroy all life. A structure so bent on survival to me is a sign of intelligence. Notice I don't say anything about the creation of such a structure needing intelligence, just that such an existing structure seems to exhibit signs of intelligence itself.

Also, every organism below humans can be seen to exhibit intelligence on some order less than ours. Why should our deductive reasoning only apply to things below us? Organisms on complexity levels above us should also be intelligent by this reasoning but for some reason a large portion of human beings feel they are the acme of this chain. I think it is ridiculously self centered to believe such things.

The Conventional definition of life is that it exhibit all of the following properties:

1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.
6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

The planet Earth exhibits all of these properties and therefore can be considered alive and its own single organism by the scientific definition. Through experience, Humans have learned that all life exhibits some form and level of intelligence. Extrapolation; the Earth is intelligent. Now, the same can be applied to the Sun. The sun also exhibits all of the basic signs of life if you remove the "Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.", which many scientists do now that the idea of non-carbon based life is more widely believed to be possible. The Galaxy exhibits all of these things, etc. etc.

I won't claim to know that much about the actual structure of the entire Universe, but the pattern of extrapolation seems to be pointing at the fact that no matter how big you get, you are still part of a larger structure that is alive and intelligent. Does that mean that there has to be one creator of everything that is bigger than us all and has nothing bigger than it? I would guess not. There is no reason why the chain cannot be infinite or cyclical for that matter. If super string theory is correct, then maybe the string is the ultimate.