My school assignment assigned me to a new assignment of assigning

As I was doing a school assignment on leadership I couldn't help but notice the variety of opinions on the leader I had chosen to research. I chose to research Jesus because I wanted a challenge, which it is since if I use quotes from the Bible I have to back it up with outside sources. But back to the point, when I asked my classmates what they knew about Jesus, a few of them relayed conspiracies of his ever having existed in the first place, a couple started to tell me everything about the religious side of his story, and many had very little idea who he actually was as a person. The main thing that stood out to me however, was that the dominant attitude towards even the name "Jesus" was very critical and generally negative. It seemed to me like Jesus has become both a saint and someone whose very name people despise as well as being the scapegoat for the world's problems. Upon further research, I found that Jesus himself prophesied this would be the case, saying that even those who associate themselves with him would expose themselves to the hatred from others that came with bearing the name. His words, "You will be hated on account of my name" are recorded literally three times in the bible, (Mathew 24:9, Mathew 10:22, & Mark 13:13). 
I find it fascinating that a man who lived 2000 years ago, preached for only a few years, and was hated by a lot of people can have over a billion people who claim to follow him today. And even more intriguing, is that the Bible itself is so often cast away as false and as a book of myths, while numerous other writings from that era are scrutinised carefully and taken almost automatically as certain truth, and the only truth we have about the past. Also, most of the things written thousands of years ago have either been destroyed or lost, while the Bible is still the best selling book to ever exist, despite how many times it has managed to survive extreme measures to eradicate it entirely. 

In conclusion, I have found that the truth is our society has developed some sort of prejudice against the Bible and the accounts described in it, but this is unduly so. I believe it should be given equal consideration as other historical books of its time, and that each one of us should evaluate the whole situation/story before making our mind up on the matter.