Buddha in a legend c300s CE had some very modern-sounding things to say
about a certain religion of his time: "These greedy liars propogate
deceit, / And fools believe the fictions they repeat; / He who has eyes
can see the sickening sight; / Why does not [the head god] set his
creatures right? / If his wide power no limits can restrain, / Why is
his hand so rarely spread to bless? / Why are his creatures all
condemned to pain? / Why does he not to all give happiness? / Why do
fraud, lies, and ignorance prevail? / Why triumphs falsehood, truth and
justice fail? / I count your [head god] one th' injust among, / Who made
a world in which to shelter wrong. / Those men are counted pure who
only kill [animals] – / These are your savage customs which I hate, /
Such as [a northwestern Indian tribe's] hordes might emulate.… / Let
[the adherents of this religion] [adherents of the same religion] kill –
so all were well! / And those who listen to the words they tell. / We
see no cattle asking to be slain… / Rather they go unwilling to their
death / And in vain struggles yield their latest breath. / To veil the
[sacrificial] post, the victim, and the blow / The [religious leaders]
let their choicest rhetoric flow… / But if the wood thus round the
victim spread / Had been as full of treasure as they said, / As full of
silver, gold, and gems for us, /…They would have offered for themselves
alone / And kept the rich reversion as their own. / These cruel cheats,
as ignorant as vile, / Weave their long frauds the simple to beguile.… /
The offerer, simple to their hearts' content, / Comes with his purse,
they gather round him fast, / Like crows around an owl, on mischief
bent, / And leave him bankrupt and stripped bare at last, / The solid
coin which he erewhile possessed, / Exchanged for promises which none
can test.… / No law condemns them, yet they ought to die." What he
didn't seem to notice was that he had begun his own religion, which
according to these Jataka tales often had completely respected people
who took all sorts of riches from others, though unlike a certain major
religion of the time it did not make animal sacrifices. It however also
made promises no one could test (as does any religion of which I am
aware), including detailed various hells and heavens. (Though I still
need to learn the history of the development of the Jataka Tales; e.g.,
if it's possible the writer of this particular piece believed
differently from other tales' writers.)
(quote from Jataka Tale No. 543, part VIII)
