Sumerian thinkers had a pessimist/negative view of the mankind and its destiny. They believed that the creature called 'man' is created "to serve the gods by providing them with food, and shelter, so they can carry out their acts in peace." They maintained that life was full of uncertainties and mankind would never be happy about this because they would never be able to guess what the gods - whose aims could not be predicted - had prepared for them as their destinies (here one may detect the beginnings of the concept of 'fate,' 'destiny' which crops up in the majority of the religions.).
According to Sumerian thinkers, man is nothing but a powerless shadow which just stands in the heavy darkness of hell following his death. There, 'life' is but a miserable reflection of the life on earth. The 'personal will' is not a problem, because man is not free, he is created for the interests and pleasures of the gods. Death is man's fate. In accordance with a divine and overriding law only gods are immortal.
The Sumerian thinkers believed that the high virtues and especially the knowledge that citizens acquired following the social quest and experiments were invented by the gods. Gods are the ones who benefited and mankind has nothing to do but to obey.
