Within the literature on just world beliefs there is a recurring argument that religiosity is positively related to just world beliefs. This thesis, along with other studies, indicates otherwise. Measures of religiosity and general religious beliefs were not substantively related to the belief in a just world in two surveys of university undergraduates.
Unsatisfactory accounts of the relationship between religiosity and just world beliefs obscure some previously unexamined assumptions about this relationship. This thesis has examined the assumption that the Christian religion promotes the belief in a just world, revealing that religious beliefs about suffering challenge the belief in the justness of the world. Highly religious Christians indicated negligible support for the belief that people who are suffering are being punished by God. The dominant explanations for human suffe1ing were that suffering is a result of the fallen state of humankind and the consequence of the actions of sinful people. Religious beliefs about suffering were argued, and found in some instances, to be important in determining the nature of the relationship between religiosity and just world beliefs.
The research presented here provides a more accurate description of the nature of the relationship between the belief in a just universe and the belief in a just world. There has been a tendency to overstate the case for a positive relationship between just world beliefs and religiosity, based on the explanation that religious people believe in ultimate justice. The thesis found that just world beliefs and just universe beliefs are distinct and possibly independent beliefs. Believing that the universe is just is not likely to be highly related to the belief in justice on earth. In contrast to just world beliefs, religiosity was found to be strongly related to the belief in the justness of the universe
