The Sysiphus Stone: Spirituality vs Religiosity – As a Baptist woman once said, "Religions are of man! Spirit is of God!"

"In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the founder and king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was a devious tyrant who killed visitors to show off his power. This violation of the sacred hospitality tradition greatly angered the gods. They punished him for trickery of others, including his cheating death twice. The gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. The 2010 study supports our hypothesis where spirituality is positively correlated with social dominance. Another reason for this relation is stated by Jackson & Hunsberger in 1999 (as cited in Smith et al., 2007) that formal organizations like religion tend to create in-group vs. out-group relationships and can develop a strong tendency to differentiate their own faith from others that might generalize to other social division; like race (Altemeyer, 2003)." As Saslow et al observe, "On the other hand, historical analyses often posit that religious differences may give rise to "us" versus "them" distinctions, which underlie conflict (Harris, 2005; Hitchens, 2008). Similarly, scholars have suggested that religion should encourage progroup solidarity and in-group altruism (Durkheim, 1915; Wilson, 2003), for example, by encouraging a shared identity with others (Graham & Haidt, 2010). According to Social Identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) if people categorize themselves into groups, they will then identify with their in-group, favorably compare their own group to other groups, and feel distinct from those outside their group.