ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ancient Mesopotamian religion

Okay kiddo, a long long time ago, there was a place called Mesopotamia, where people lived thousands of years before our time! They had a really interesting way of understanding the world, and what they believed in is called ancient Mesopotamian religion.

So, in their religion, they thought that there were many gods who controlled different aspects of life. There was a god for the sun, one for the moon, and even one for the water! They believed that if they pleased these gods, they would be blessed with good things, like good crops or healthy babies.

But, if they angered the gods, they believed that they would be punished with bad things happening to them! They even thought that all the natural disasters like floods or droughts were actually caused by the gods, so they had to perform special rituals and sacrifices to keep the gods happy.

They also believed in an afterlife, meaning that once they died, they would go to a special place where all the souls lived. They thought that the afterlife was a dark and gloomy place, but they could make it better by being a good person when they were alive.

Overall, the ancient Mesopotamian religion may seem a bit strange to us today, but it was a way for them to make sense of the world around them and find comfort in knowing that there were powerful beings watching over them.