Replication data for: Towards the Scientific Study of Polytheism: Beyond Forced Choice Measures of Religious Belief

This article argues that zero-sum approaches to measuring religious belief do not work well outside of the Abrahamic world. Positive sum approaches to measuring religious beliefs (in the plural) are better suited to the study of polytheistic societies. This argument is made using results from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2011 Taiwan, and is contrasted with results from the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS). We demonstrate that in a polytheistic society like Taiwan, religious belief is not zero-sum. We also seek to show that our positive-sum approach to measuring religious beliefs can help us better understand the disparate causes and consequences of different religious beliefs in polytheistic societies. The challenge of Christocentrism in quantitative studies of religion is also discussed.

本文指出，用于衡量宗教信仰的零和方法在亚伯拉罕一神教世界之外的地区效果欠佳。用于衡量多种宗教信仰的正和方法则更适用于多神教社会的相关研究。本文的论证基于2011年台湾地区开展的全国代表性抽样调查结果，并与台湾社会变迁调查（Taiwan Social Change Survey, TSCS）的结果进行对比。本文证明，在台湾这样的多神教社会中，宗教信仰并非零和关系。此外，本文还试图证实，我们提出的衡量多种宗教信仰的正和方法，能够帮助我们更好地理解多神教社会中不同宗教信仰所具有的迥异成因与影响。本文还探讨了宗教量化研究中基督中心主义所带来的研究挑战。