¶ … religious views afterlife held ancient Mesopotamian ancient Egyptians Ancient Mesopotamians believed that the world was a sphere that was divided in two parts -- one occupied by the living and one occupied by the dead. Gods were present in both environments and controlled much of what happened in the world of the living and in the world of the dead. Even with the fact that this civilization emphasized that a ferry individual carried individuals from the grave to the Underworld, there is limited information concerning what happened to dead people once they got there. Mesopotamians were generally pessimistic with regard to the afterlife and believed that it involved a horrible place where individuals would go through great pains.

In contrast to Mesopotamians, Egyptians were optimistic concerning afterlife and actually focused on preparing a deceased person in order for him or her to experience pleasurable experiences once they reached the world of the death. By looking at some...

The Egyptians did not devise a concept of 'hell' and generally believed that individuals would be provided with great spiritual and material fortunes once they died.
The fact that Mesopotamians associated the afterlife with ideas like pain and suffering makes it possible to understand that this was a particularly pessimistic community and that they had little to no hope regarding the afterlife. Egyptians were practically opposite to them when considering that they greatly valued the afterlife and encouraged positive behavior throughout one's life in order for the respective person to be provided with positive experiences in his or her afterlife. While an Egyptian was enthusiastic about reaching the afterlife, a Mesopotamian believed that there was nothing interesting about this concept and that…