Sorry, sort of over-emphasized liking the last verse! Since that set the mood for religious talk, here goes!
It doesn't matter whether Jesus is the biggest liar in History and just a schizophrenic paranoid self-absorbed Opium-taking (yup, they HAD and USED Opium in those days) twit or that he was married to Mary Magdalena and whether or not he really is the Son of God or NOT. What's important is his message of LOVE, RESPECT, FORGIVENESS and TOLERANCE. Words of Wisdom many after him tried to spread AKA Ghandi.
Jesus fought against a corrupt Church that took advantage of people's belief. Would he be turning in his grave if he knew what the Catholics did in the Middle Ages and even now... What did they do? Well, to finance the construction of a cathedral for the Pope (OK, it wasn't exactly IN the Middle Ages, it was in between the MA and Renaissance) the priests sold letters of pardon. All you had to do was buy God's forgiveness and you'd go to heaven. You could even buy them for your dead relatives so they could leave purgatory (which no longer exists since the new Pope thinks it's a stupid idea). Martin Luther (he's NOT the same as Martin Luther KING), a German monk was appalled at this. ''You can't BUY forgiveness, you have to be truly repentant!'' He wrote his theses and wanted some change. Unfortunately, the Pope was anything else but happy to receive criticism from a lowly monk and wanted him killed. Luther had some supporters who protested with him. They called themselves PROTESTANTS. A new Religion was born. Think ML escaped to Switzerland, not sure maybe he just hid in a noble man's castle in Germany.
At the same time Calvin and another guy who's name always escapes me was reforming Geneva. Ever since the revocal of the edits of Nantes (it stated that protestants could live in peace alongside Catholics, working freely without being decapitated, put ubber-simplistically) by Louis the er... er... 14th(?), many of the Huguenots (protestants) flooded into Switzerland. Mainly Geneva and Vaud. Geneva thrived under the Calvinists. They were mega-strict. Basically identical to the Puritans in England. Puritans are English Calvinists. Their rules: no fun, bars closed, special clothes, only book allowed: the Bible, earned money must be given to the Church or put back into the state or job. Hospitals were built, schools and Universities. Geneva was a prosperous town. It went downhill ever since...
Many wars have been fought for religion, however it was only a pretext. The Crusades: ''God told us to take back the holy land''. Oh? Did he also say to rape, kill and pillage all the villagers on the way? Also does ''thou shalt not steal'' and ''thou shalt not kill'' ring any bells? All they wanted was land and money. Religion was only an excuse. Even if Religion did not exist wars would still have been fought. Hitler still would have built concentration camps and millions of people (Gypsies, blacks, Easterners, gays, etc...) still would have lost their lives.
To come back to ''God told us...''. God didn't tell you anything. What, did you really think he's a kindly old man sitting on the clouds watching down? Sorry to bust your bubble, but that seems unlikely. The best ''Philosophy'' is: pantheism. God is everywhere or more specifically God=Nature. God is within us. We are part of this nature and our point in life is in this er... life. How he came to be is THE question. Religion comforts many people, takes their fear from dying and gives them a purpose.
Extremists drag their whole ethnic and religious groups into the dirt. What about all those Muslims who live peacefully? The only ''problem'' I have with them, is that they downgrade women and sorry to say, but treat them like shit!!!
Other than that, why can't we live in peace? Why must humans be so greedy? In this world in which money has more value than a human life, where men who are supposed to protect and lead are corrupt and respect is a foreign word, how can we expect to live in peace? You're neighbour's garden looks greener, his wife/her husband better and his money more abundant than yours, you can't just let it be. Jealousy, then anger sets in. Anger turns to action and the action is murder...
Also, young people don't have any respect these days and their values seem perverted. Shame is something they don't know about. I mean if you hadn't done the work required of you and the teacher asked you to present it, wouldn't you feel ashamed or at least embarrassed at being reprimanded in front of the whole class? They don't. Cool as a cucumber they sit there looking almost bored. No apology, no excuse. Nothing. They come late and don't apologize. The already annoyed teacher looks on the verge of exploding. It's only polite to say sorry (and preferably mean it). Respect of elders, law and people situated above you (teachers, directors) is no longer guaranteed. OK, you have to earn respect and it's good to question someone's authority, but they do it all the time!
Oops, that went ubber-oober off-topic!!! So conclusion: Jesus brought his death on himself. If he'd have shut up and not criticized the way things were run, he'd have been OK. Er... Whoohoops (like in Scary Movie). His message is important even if he was only someone like Marthin Luther King or Ghandi and not an in-vitro clone of God implanted into Mary. Religion is what people make it. That's it really. Not much else to say, except don't believe everything it says in the Bible/Koran and don't let people squash your beliefs out of you EXCEPT if it involves the earth being flat or no evolution. The End!!