They also have a great need for authority - or to be authoritarian. The few who are "chosen" telling the rest how and what to think and believe.

I know more than a few non-religious conservatives (more accurately, those whose god is money), and they are just as fearful as the Bible-thumpers. I think there's something that's hard-wired. There have even been psychological studies suggesting that people who are politically conservative are more fearful of things in general. And that makes sense when you consider that "conservatism," by definition, is a philosophy that favors maintaining the status quo. Conservatives don't like change. I'd say they are afraid of change, and these days change = the presence different sorts of people, different kinds of beliefs, different social conditions, etc. No question, ISIS is a nasty bunch that is further destabilizing an already unstable region; but, like al Qaeda, they are not an existential threat to the US. However, to conservatives they represent everything that is foreign and bad and dangerous and OMG they're going to kill us all! Religion is, of course, a significant factor; but it seems to me that it is conservatives' underlying, hard-wired fear that feeds their religious beliefs rather than the other way around.

that all of us are born "a blank slate" and we are constantly written on as we mature. True, genes,DNA, and chromosones and other hard-wiring does play a part in our physical appearance and certain other things. But it is the psyche, the mind, our approach to life that is written on that blank slate we all had at one time.

with a gun in one hand and a bible in the other to fight the evil terrors that await around every corner and under every rock. Their world is filled with strange different people who want to kill them, take their stuff, force them to accept "immoral" principals and other terrifying threats to their existence. That and they believe that everyone else is just as mean spirited and menacing as they are.