Its been years since I've seen any of the BSG. However when I was watching them as they came out, the religious undertones were quite apparent to me. I am a religious person, so maybe those bits just stuck out to me more. In fact my own religion was the basis of the original BSG. It is no secret that Glen Larson is mormon and liked to infuse bits of mormonism into the original BSG. If you are curious about the similarities, I'd be happy to point a few of them out, though I'm sure there are webpages out there that have it all nicely documented.

The new BSG had a new religion with just some very slight vestiges of Glen Larson's BSG. I know because I watched for them and they were practically nonexistent. As far as I can tell Ron Moore made up his religious backdrop wholecloth and actually did a much better job of it than Larson. I never finished Caprica, but felt like it meshed with Ron Moore's BSG quite well.

AS for the ending. I hated it. I didn't feel so much that it came out of no where just that it was sloppily done. I've come to terms with it though and hate is too strong a word. Ron Moore tied himself into a knot, because he never had a plan. "...and they have a plan." was always a lie. There was never a plan and when it became clear to me, the whole thing felt like a cheat.

Ron cut himself out of the knot he tied for himself. It was inelegant, but it was an ending. At least we got an ending that tried, unlike LOST.