If I were to to do the same I'd be saying that there are no religious people around anymore and the church's only exist to interfere in politics, the people involved only having "faith" in as far as it justifies there actions.
If we had a large and verifiable alien encounter, there would be three types of reaction.
Denial - it's a fake, Panic - Run for the hills, Acceptance - Ok, it's what it is, how do we move forward with it.
There would be of course be people from each of these groups trying to profit from the event in whatever manner is possible.
I think the reaction to the pandemic shows how communities react to uncomfortable events, and I think the difference in reactions from different communities/countries give a pretty good indication on how they would react to an alien encounter. Some countries would react well, others would just dissolve into chaos.
You realize that anything that a human believes to be true is rooted, fundamentally, in a faith-based assumption, right? science is faith in the human ability to percieve; religion is when this faith is based on the ineffible.
Science is good for practical matters. Religion is good for moral matters.
They are not at odds. The human connection to the logical and their connection to the spiritual have walked hand in hand throughout history. Our spirituality has guided our science, and vice versa. To lose our religiousness would be to lose a full half of our capability for reasoning.
Why is it that many highly innovative and prolific scientists throughout history have been deeply religious?
Furthermore, EVEN IF religion was complete fiction, which I believe it is not, it is so very obviously a useful and deeply insightful fiction. It allows us to interrogate the inner workings of the human psyche, the natural moral law, gives us a sense of purpose, motivates charity and kindness, creates community and social trust. Abd you cab miss me with that Sam Harris, "but we can do all that without religion, cause ultimately religion also causes problems of bigotry" - Bo, we cannot, it is precisely the illogucal nature of religion that makes it useful for moral reasoning. Logical deduction about morality leads to highly undesirable consequences. And yes, sone religions propogate bigotry : not all, though. For example, Christianity does not promote any sort of judgement of others. While there are christians who do so, they do it in spite of the word of the bible, not because of it.
Okay, hopping off my soapbox now, but really guys, you ought to be more sympathetic to the religious among us, you might learn something and become a better person in the process.