"God put them there to test our faith just like the dinosaurs ! "

Religious "true believers" will always find a way of explaining the situation within the context of their dogma.

People are exceedingly skilled at reasoning around the facts to arrive at their pre-existing belief system

They deny evolution here because it doesn't fit in their world view. I'm sure that many of them would deny alien life too. Or claime it's demonic.

I don't think so. They would just claim it is the work of the devil. Remember when the Christians came to the new world and found the natives of central and South America and the aborigines people of Australia, some of them concluded that they were created by the devil since the bible did not mention their existence.

Religious people would just find some line in the bible and twist it..then say "see even the bible sais there is life on other planets!"

There is no debating these people.

I doubt the discovery of life anywhere would make most believers question anything. They'd probably just say their god put it there.

No, we discovered the world is round, that the stars sun and planets don't revolve around us. They just adapt their beliefs, but don't change them.

This would be interesting to witness, what religions would do, probably try and carefully re word things to continue to brainwash their followers

I don't think so, they'd simply state that it's in his/her plan. Their belief system would remain unchanged.

God Trumps All Arguments Against Him.

It is impossible to win an argument against a hard core Christian.

No matter how absurd, impossible, ridiculous, inane, the Christian

Position and no matter how scientific, reasonable, or even Biblical,

the Skeptic’s position, the Christian can always play the “God can do anything”

Card and trump the Skeptics argument. With God all things are possible. You lose

My Skeptical friend.
​

Don't forget these dummies will believe just about anything the clergy (gods direct voice to the masses) say. And according to the bible on the third or fourth day (I forget the exact day) god made the universe and everything in it. So to keep the blindly obidient cash cows forking over their money, the clergy will twist the story like a pretzel to make it gods doing.

Hopefully, it will at least help people realize we have more in common with one another than we were led to believe.

I doubt it most of these deluded people would not believe it was real and go into their denial phase just like they do with global warming or evolution.
I have no doubt that we will discover life or clear evidence of life on another planet, moon or othe celestial body at some point soon, but don't expect it to change the thinking of the ignorant.

That was Asimov theory that the discovery of aliens would be the end of religion.

I think it might push a few off the fence, but most would scramble to find some new biblical interpretation that allows it.

I think the religious would do one of 2 things depending on the type of life.
Let's say that we actually discover life in our immediate neighborhood. And I'm saying immediate neighborhood because although we can detect the composition of planets far away from us, we wouldn't be able to detect life on say a planet which consists mostly of water (water being a critical component for life as we know it) unless we actually go there. At least with a probe.

But let's say we detect life on Europa, considering it consists of a water-ice crust and may harbor an ocean underneath it. Life may not be what we see here on earth. More than likely microbial life.
How would the religious react?
"God is so wonderful, he created other life in our universe besides us." (Most likely response)

But lets say that one day, we are visited by a species that's from... Let's say the Andromeda Galaxy. There's a high probability that they wouldn't look anything like us. Especially considering a planet's atmosphere influences the evolution of life.
(They may not even need water to sustain life. Keep in mind that our understanding of life is based off of what we have observed right here on earth)
If they don't look like us at all, this would put the whole "God created man in his own image" into scrutiny.
They'll either defend it (But they're not human)
Or say that we are taking that out of context.

Chances are... They'll blame their favorite scapegoat: Satan

On a side note, if the DNA was definitely non-terrestrial, or was based on something else entirely, I, tho knowing the odds favor other life in this vast universe, would be amazed & awed in having one of the fundamental questions of all time finally answered! One of my most fervent wishes is that this comes to pass in my lifetime.

A few might change, but there are too many people out there who, for example, claim to be devout christians yet support trump. Most would rationalize some way or another.

Something tells me they would touch up the narrative so they didn’t have to question it, and then form a new version of their original story.

Probably not.most are so emotionally attached to their beliefs that facts make little difference.Two days ago a person told me the devil controls the earth's weather.How do you argue with that.In spite of all the research proving the theory of evolution half of Americans don't believe it.And after so many Trump voters still support him despite what the lies and deplorable statements and actions I have just about given up hope for the human race.the disconnect between beliefs and reality is enormous.

They will simply adapt either their belief system, or more likely, their understanding of the facts, to accommodate. Religious faith, by its inherent nature, cherry picks or distorts facts to fit its presuppositionalist beliefs.

It will, of course, be more of a problem for some sects than for others. For example, young earth creationists are already morphing into young universe creationists, claiming that organic compounds found on comets come from earth (via the cataclysm of the Flood spewing such matter into space). They are reinterpreting all such incoming telemetry to fit their adamant belief that life is unique to Earth. This is actually going well beyond what scripture even claims or requires. Presumably that group represents one extreme, the other would probably be liberal Christians who have already incorporated the theory of evolution into the doctrine of theistic evolution.

Someone in a similar thread here also said that the catholic church is out in front of this also with the notion that other worlds of sentient creatures would have their own visitation from Jesus and thus have their own savior, or something to that effect. Others have said that other races may not have fallen like us, and may be avoiding us so as not to get sin-cooties from us.

According to the Vatican’s News Agency, Pope Francis was delivering a homily during mass in 2014 where he said,

“If – for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen? … When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, 'No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, let's do it this way'... Who are we to close doors? In the early Church, even today, there is the ministry of the ostiary [usher]. And what did the ostiary do? He opened the door, received the people, allowed them to pass. But it was never the ministry of the closed door, never."

Also note that the Catholic Church has a long involved history with astronomy dating back to the 1500s. And, the Catholic Church is still a significant player in the scientific world, especially in the field of Astronomy. Run primarily by the Jesuits, an order within the Church, the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona is a highly advanced piece of machinery that has discovered many asteroids, exoplanets and galaxies.

"It's aliens" ... What about that cute little tardigrade animal? It can survive in space, being dehydrated, frozen and can reanimate & reproduce.
I would hope, the discovery of life elsewhere would make them want to at least ASK questions.