台灣佛教信眾的放生態度與行爲 -- 宗教信念與生態認知的影響=Taiwanese Buddhists' Attitudes and Behaviors of Animal Release: The Effects of Religious Beliefs and Ecological Recognition
Animal release has been a popular religious activity in Taiwan since the 1990s. This paper attempts to identify the significant factors which influence Taiwanese Buddhists to do or not to do animal release. By using the survey data and the methods of cross-classification, factor analysis, t-test and correspond analysis, I inspect the relations between animal release behaviors and religious beliefs and ecological recognition. The findings are as follows. First, people attending group animal release activities are unlikely to practice individual accidental animal release; moreover, many Buddhists mix up the meaning of individual accidental animal release and intentional animal release. Second, some Buddhists consider certain Buddhist groups, which held animal release events, as environmentalist groups. This result is quite ironical to environmentalists. Third, some Buddhist would go to specific groups for the purpose of animal release events. Fourth, five items concerning religious belief and ecological recognition show the significant differences of attitudes between people attending and people not attending group animal release; however, all ten items fail to distinguish the attitudes of people practicing from people not practicing individual animal release. Fifth, the visualized constellation of correspondence analysis displays all relations between the variable of animal release and other relative variables.
