臺灣佛教信眾的放生態度與行為: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

動物放生是近十年來相當蓬勃的台灣宗教現象，本論文旨在找出影響台灣佛教信眾個人是否從事放生活動的關鍵因素。藉由問卷設計與調查的資料，檢視佛教信眾個人的宗教信念及生態認知與台灣佛教信眾參與放生活動狀況的關係。使用的分析方法有交叉表、因素分析、t-檢定和對應分析等。研究的結果發現：一、參與集體放生的信眾和隨緣放生的信眾重疊性不高，而許多信眾實際做的是個人立意放生，卻當作是隨緣放生。二、不少佛教信眾把佛教團體（包括放生團體）視同環保團體，部份反映某些佛教團體對環保問題的重視及某些放生團體對生態與環保議題的回應，但也透露了少數佛教信眾對生態認知的不足。三、有些信眾主要參與的團體未舉辦放生活動，但會去參加其他團體舉辦的放生活動。四、有關業報、輪迴、生命觀等十項信念與認知中，只有五項可鑑別有參與和沒有參與集體放生之信眾的態度差異，但這十項對是否有做隨緣放生的信眾的態度都沒有鑑別度。五、對應分析以空間分布的方式呈現放生與各種相關因素之間的相對關係，提供了台灣佛教信眾宗教信念與行為的整體圖像。

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.