I believe you’re right about the generality of feelings however, I thought I had read an article of MRI study of the brain involving subjects contemplating religion and other triggers. Could I have imagined it? Anyway, this work indicated some specificity in activation of the brain. Whether the specific areas of activation evolved directly or are the byproduct of the development of another function does not matter since the effect is physiological. Doesn't it still point to the primacy of religious affect?
Imagination. Magic. Mage. These words have the same root. The imagination can produce phastasms but it is also the birthplace of many things which manifest in the material world. One can believe that all we do is copy nature and make modifications upon what nature has produced through evolution. Other things may preexist independently on another plane, an imaginal realm. These include such things as mathematical formulas or depictions of relationships in reality, e.g., E = mc2. Some religions refer to this plane as the Ground of Being (alaya in Buddhism). I’m not really qualified to speak of this but perhaps you get the picture. Anyway, my point is I won’t disparage the importance of the imagination in our existence. I know that what we’re actually talking about is more a discussion of people’s reaction to Christianity in particular and not so much to religion in general. There’s something in the Bible that points about man being created in God’s image. Image. Imagination…
Feelings? Personally, I don’t believe that feelings such as fear, doubt, and grief are in themselves to be regarded in any negative sense.
Regarding the brain’s tendency to fill the void:
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/10/hallucinations_in_se.html
Psychological readjustment: The ExtraRoom, a space to achieve psychological alterations.
[video:vimeo]5319345
I would say more but I gotta go. Got an appointment in the snow.
First the subhuman atheist, now being nonreligious constitutes a lack of imagination.
There's at least one atheist artist out there who thinks you're a fucking moron.