An Accidental God: The Evolution of Religion, or How a Boy from the Dawn of Civilization Became the God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims

An Accidental God tells how, through a series of accidents, a person who lived at the dawn of civilization became God. It is a fictionalized but historically plausible interpretation of the story of the biblical patriarch Abraham, focusing on how coincidental events and human misperceptions lead him to believe a particular ancestor, named Yehhi, is a powerful god. An earthquake shakes the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur; amid the devastation, Abraham sees that all the family idols have toppled over, all except for the statue of Yehhi, a revered ancestor. He is convinced that Yehhi has shown his power by remaining upright amid the collapse of the other gods, and he believes that this is Yehhi’s call for his clan to abandon Ur.

Abraham’s young nephew Lot is swindled by a wily merchant into squandering the family fortune on a smelly herd of sheep and goats tended by slave boys, named Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham must now become a nomadic shepherd wandering in a strange wilderness. Ishmael, who was stolen from his family, secretly guides them back towards his home in Canaan. Along the way, events challenge Abram to think differently about his relationship with his god Yehhi.

Abraham has been unable to conceive children due to a disease that he does not understand, so he develops a fatherly affinity for Ishmael and Isaac. Nevertheless, Abram becomes increasingly obsessed by his inability to produce children of his own. He bargains with his god Yehhi, and he seizes upon a local custom of genital mutilation to improve fertility. He engages in increasingly gory animal sacrifices and eventually resorts to human sacrifice.