Err I dont quite get where you're coming from. As I understood the original question it was regarding why is SETI deemed scientific whereas religion is deemed faith-based. My response to that was that SETI is not science (and still does receive support from public funding bodies who would otherwise spend the money on science). I didnt claim it was unimportant nor that science is all that should be funded.

By the way, the homeopathy comparison doesnt die so easily (being another example of pseudo-science). Of course scientific studies have been undertaken disproving homeopathy - being pseudo science the homeopath can follow the same path as the SETI enthusiast. "Oh we just havent found anything yet - we need more time to keep looking"