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My question was whether belief in God influence one's character. I never said, atheists can't be good people. :)

There is a tribe in India which has great faith in GOD, they live mostly by staling money and valuables burgling in to the houses, they perform a full fledged POOJA before starting their operation. Now what would you call it. So faith and characters are totally different. One can have inspiration in different ways by having faith.


Faith and character depend on social values. Generally, lustful feeling and conduct with brother's wife is sin. But not so in Ladakh tribe where a woman is married to one brother but she is considered wife of all brothers. As already explained in this thread, even the criminals have faith in religious rituals. So what matters is self confidence and faith in society and nation. faith in religion is no so relevant so far as character is concerned.

G. K. Ajmani Tax consultant
http://gkajmani-mystraythoughts.blogspot.com/

yes, you people are right, Faith influence our character.
If a person keep on reading some devotional book, there will be effect of those book on that person. same way in others also

Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

"I could not understand what did you exactly mean by terming spirituality as individualistic? Can we delink spirituality from society? Or were all our spiritualist individualistic? Sree Rama Krishna Paramhansa ,Swami Vivekandnada!! Even the so-called laws which are guiding the conduct of our citizens today are partly derived from our religious heritage. Emperor Asoka was deeply moved by Lord Buddha's teachings and became a disciple to renounce war for ever!!India produced saints and seer who transcended all individulism like Guru Nanak, Kabir,Chaitanyadev to name a few whose spiritual teachings made monumental impact on the common masses and society as a whole!!! "

@Gulshanji

The question which I raised above still remains unanswered! All our leaders worthy of mention who led the nation with exemplary record of service particulary in the pre-Independence era were all influenced one way or other.I need a clear definition of what is 'spirituality' to you.
My question was whether belief in God influence one's character. I never said, atheists can't be good people. :)

There is a tribe in India which has great faith in GOD, they live mostly by stealing money and valuables burgling in to the houses, they perform a full fledged POOJA before starting their operation. Now what would you call it. So faith and characters are totally different. One can have inspiration in different ways by having faith.


@Sunil

What are you out there to prove? If a burglar offers puja after committing burglary,don't you think that it's an indicator of his guilty conscience!!
Belief in God, spirituality etc. etc. are all personal issues and to an extent they may influence one's character, but not always. My personal opinion is that a strength of character is more influenced by other attributes such as honesty, integrity, confidence and ability to stick to your convictions rather than falling prey to various temptations, that is what builds a character and not the fact whether you believe in your own personal God and conduct pooja on a daily basis. If belief in Gods built characters, then we would not have had so many Godmen and Sadhus, priests etc. conducting atrocities on women and children in various religious institutions across India!

"I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally."
- W. C. Fields :)

Belief in God, spirituality etc. etc. are all personal issues and to an extent they may influence one's character, but not always. My personal opinion is that a strength of character is more influenced by other attributes such as honesty, integrity, confidence and ability to stick to your convictions rather than falling prey to various temptations, that is what builds a character and not the fact whether you believe in your own personal God and conduct pooja on a daily basis. If belief in Gods built characters, then we would not have had so many Godmen and Sadhus, priests etc. conducting atrocities on women and children in various religious institutions across India!


@Kalyani

Most of the virtues you have mentioned demand and presuppose as I believe - existence of a clear conscience - for example honesty,integrity etc - which one can't have unless he or she looks beyond the horizon of materilaistic world.It's absolutely true that all of us are at all influenced by such considerations. Similarly it would be equally fallacious to question the role of spirituality or higher moral thoughts looking at the aberrant behaviour of a few fake godmen or sadhus who always lived,live and would live like parasites!
I really don't think believing or not believing in God influence one's character. Character totally depends on the qualities you have, values you believe in and your principles.

The combination of all the above will determine your character; whether good or bad.

I would have written more but Kalyani has got me covered.
Thank you said by: Kalyani Nandurkar
I totally support your view point, had it been for belief in God makes us most characteristic than we in India would have toppled them all in the world. We have countless gods and goddess and almost as much devotees. At the most we can say that God prevents us from committing sin, that too if we are willing.

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"I could not understand what did you exactly mean by terming spirituality as individualistic? Can we delink spirituality from society? Or were all our spiritualist individualistic? Sree Rama Krishna Paramhansa ,Swami Vivekandnada!! Even the so-called laws which are guiding the conduct of our citizens today are partly derived from our religious heritage. Emperor Asoka was deeply moved by Lord Buddha's teachings and became a disciple to renounce war for ever!!India produced saints and seer who transcended all individulism like Guru Nanak, Kabir,Chaitanyadev to name a few whose spiritual teachings made monumental impact on the common masses and society as a whole!!! "

@Gulshanji

The question which I raised above still remains unanswered! All our leaders worthy of mention who led the nation with exemplary record of service particulary in the pre-Independence era were all influenced one way or other.I need a clear definition of what is 'spirituality' to you.


'Spirituality' is a term derived from 'spirit' or 'soul' as distinct from human body and other material objects. Thus this means stressing more on relation of soul with 'God' or similar non physical entities rather than the physical aspects of living. I do not know much about 'spirituality'.
Most people have some sort of belief in religion. It is obvious that our leaders in freedom struggle had also such faith. Nobody is entirely spiritual or materialist. Obviously a person more inclined to spirituality would care less for physical belonging or consumption and he may be less corrupt and more honest. Also there are some spiritualist who believe that all living body have similar soul that is ultimately component of 'super soul' called God. Hence they are more compassionate and not cruel to any creature. However there are many shades of religious and spiritual faith and the ultimate behavior is unpredictable. We should judge people by how they behave in society irrespective of their spiritual or religious leanings.

G. K. Ajmani Tax consultant
http://gkajmani-mystraythoughts.blogspot.com/

Thank you said by: chinmoymukherjee
My simple views here centre around how and what you view as God and once that is cleared,then comes the question of being influenced or not! Some of my friends have gone by the external manifestations which are rightly not the yardstick.If according to one - by taking a dip in the holy waters of the Ganges and offering flowers at the feet of idols chanting a few mantras and then go about doing all things which are morally and socially wrong - even devil would laugh at this godly act!!! But if one responds and remains alive to the voice of conscience, he or she is one who can claim to be influenced positively by such spritual thoughts. I wonder aloud how we can think and talk about 'value system','principles' without relating it to such spiritual content!!!
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