I'm not trying to put on a fedora about this issue, I have my own philosophies that aren't atheistic nor do they belong in this thread. What I'm asking about is why do we write off Sumerian or Babylonian history off as of as simply "evil ones"? These people clearly had civilization before the 5000 years ago that fundamentalists claim the world existed, and from what I can tell had many technologies lost due to them just being regarded as footnotes in biblical history. (Note: My high school education was from a Catholic school, however it doesn't seem like public schools don't bother with it either)
Is your question about the place of Sumer and Babylon in historical studies in general? Or is it about it's place in high school curricula?
In the academic fields like archaeology they actually form a very large part of most of the literature and historical background.