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Religiousness has been shown to have a positive effect on both physical and mental health. However, several studies found that religiousness can be linked to religious and spiritual struggles that have negative effects on physical and mental health. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of religiousness on religious and spiritual struggles, if any. A quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, crosssectional design was used. The Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness Scale (4-BDRS) and The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (R/SS) were administered to 160 college students from several cities in Indonesia through an online survey. A multiple regression test found that three dimensions of 4-BDRS had a significant effect on religious and spiritual struggles. Behaving had a significant positive effect (β =.2, ρ <.05), while Believing (β =-.25, ρ <.05) and Bonding (β =-.25, ρ <.05) had a significant negative effect. Belonging did not have a significant effect. This study sheds light on the potential dark side that religiousness might have. While total religiousness can minimize religious and spiritual struggles as can some of its dimensions, in this study, focusing only on Behaving dimensions increased religious and spiritual struggles. Hence, the four components of religiousness need to be cultivated for the positive effects of religiousness to appear. Otherwise, religiousness might be the source of the problem. Implications and applications of this study are also discussed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many religious college students have found comfort in God, while others may have developed anger toward God; however, no studies have systematically compared the multidimensional effects of religiousness on how Muslim and Christian students react to stressors such as COVID-19. This study addressed this gap in the literature by investigating which of the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness Scale (4-BDRS: believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging) were significant predictors for both taking comfort in and feeling anger toward God among Muslim ( n = 550) and Christian ( n = 334) college students in Indonesia, while also controlling for the influence of neuroticism, a known predictor for attitudes toward God. Muslims reported that all dimensions of the 4-BDRS were significant predictors of comfort, with bonding as a negative predictor (β = –.09, p = .04), while Christians reported that belonging (β = .07, p = .34) was the only insignificant predictor. Muslims reported that believing (β = –.22, p ⩽ .001) and behaving (β = –.19, p = .002) were negative predictors of anger, while Christians reported negative effects only for bonding (β = –.17, p = .04); however, bonding did not significantly predict anger when analyzed separately for men and women. Therefore, to decrease their anger toward and increase the comfort they find in God, Muslims must focus on their beliefs and exercise the commandments of Islam. Christians, though, must focus on increasing cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of religiousness to find comfort, while having better personal relationships with God could be key in reducing anger toward God.