moon, i hope this clarifies things: i have my opinions as to what creates a good character, a few of the major ones being sexual attitude and religion. those don't have to be shown outright, per se, but writers allude to, or at least should, i think, to these things by character actions/thoughts/conversations. i think often writers don't really know these things about their characters themselves until situations unfold, but good characters to me still aren't ambiguous by the end of a trilogy. in other words, i should have enough clues to piece together a character as a believable person (or alien, ghost, whatever). (as an aside, this is probably a large reason why i hate children characters, because they always tend to have it all figured out or have not one challengable opinion.)
like it was said, buddhism, as far as my research has borne out, is a non-religion religion. philosophy and religion go hand in hand (i'm deliberately leaving psychology, social pressure, and medical conditions out of the mix as i feel these tend to be the results from phil. and rel.), but there's a noticable difference. generally, most people's religion is given to them and that's what they grow up with. (i like saying no one ever woke up in salt lake city one morning and said, 'you know what, i think i'm a muslim!') since religion is by-and-large a part of growing up, philosophy stems from that upbringing. so, in a mundane case, a child is taught religion, and having that almost inbred basis (show me where you can escape a society'ss dominant religion), your philosophy is greatly influenced by that. of course, that's a general statement, but the 'well, i know 50 people who proves that's not true' doesn't impress me.
my personal philosophy is based on what i consider to be fact because i don't have a religion to tell me how to think. so, i'm often proven wrong (albeit i admit it's not easy getting me to that point, lol). but i'm an uninteresting character, truth be told (good thing i'm still good-looking). it's worth noting (at least i believe this to be true) that there's quite a bit of difference between faith-based 'truths' which can't be verified as opposed to factually-based philosophical opinion. the two compliment each other in a character, no (i'd say there's also an inherent conflict)? if i don't have a strongish sense of either, nor of sex, i get bored with that character.
plenty of folk think scientists are aetheist. not true. surveys say the majority of them have a faith. likewise, while i think most people consider philosophers as people trying to reason their way into aetheism, that's not true, either: most philosophers, i dare say, would claim philosophy brings them *closer* to their god (or so i've read by some philosopher over the years).
if there's a religion in a person's life, a religion the person actually believes in and follows, everything else is a trickle down effect, eh? religion dictates sexual practice and beliefs. sexual freedom or repression affects a person's personality (which like philosophy and religion, personality and psychology i think are one another's best friend and worst enemy). how a person spends his time and spends his money is greatly dictated by religion.
so, if i know a character is a devout catholic, i know a lot about that character. if you want to have him banging every secretary in his corner office, you can't call him devout. that's not just an exception of the character's beliefs, it's really a contradiction of the writer themselves, not of the character. 'devout, except for...' would be okay, but to denote a character as one thing and start picking him apart without foreshadowing or any basis for doing so is bad writing to me. conflicted characters are great as are characters who go against their normal ways of being-- those things just need to be justified.
i hope that helps, moon.
i'm rather unclear as to what you're unclear about, though, lol.
that's an excellent line: 'i believe people are religious by nature....' are they? are people more 'religious by nature' a thousand years ago as opposed to a modern culture? and has that 'nature' been forced upon people, creating a false culture people otherwise wouldn't have considered were the concept of gods and religion not taught to the in the first place? were i completely ignorant of religion, i'd eventually wonder what a church is and why there are five of them in my neighbourhood. were i raised on an island totally without any concept of any religion, i wonder if i'd ever think there was a higher power without being told. you've pricked an excellent vein there, my friend. kudos. in that situation, i wonder what priorities i'd give my character. would sex become an overwhelming factor sans anything other than a safety issue? why do we not screw around on our wives, just because we promised her and God we wouldn't? why is it when a guy screws around, he's a dog, yet when a woman does it, it's usually a case of her 'not getting the attention/emotional support she needs at home'? lol. i just threw those last sentences in there.