does bind depends on system DNS settings for lookup?

[Dil Lee]

Hi,
This is probably a dummy question.
My understand of bind in handling non-authoritative queries is:
1) forward mode. It just forward the client queries to an upstream DNS
server, which is defined in "forwarders" directive.
2) recursive mode. It actually start asking from root DNS server, then
2nd level DNS server etc till it finally get an authoritative answer
for the host in question.
Non of these modes seems to depends/relates to the system DNS settings
on the host which bind is running on, e.g. /etc/resolv.conf . AMIRITE?
Regards,
Dil