In the Western literature on religious politics, religion is often associated with political conservatism, for instance, anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality, and voting for conservative parties. The rise of religious fundamentalism also encourages religious participation in politics. Religious conservatism and their active participation in politics together pose a potential ”threat” to democracy, as perceived by the liberals. Does the relationship between religion and conservatism also hold true in Asian countries with multiple religions? This paper presents a pioneering statistical research on the relationship between religion and political conservatism in Taiwan where multiple religions co-exist peacefully. The statistical results confirm the general theory that religious people are more conservative than non-believers. But they vary across religious beliefs and religious groups. In some cases, religious people are not more conservative than non-religious people. This difference is probably due to the specific classics, tradition, and teaching of each religion. This paper also conducts two methodological experiments based on the respondent's experience of religious powers and religious conceptions associated with the major religions in Taiwan in order to explain their differences in political attitude. The statistical results demonstrate that Chinese religions are multi-dimensional phenomena and should be studied accordingly.
