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My friend and I started just by thinking about a backstory for one of his characters. He wanted to play a preacher-style gunslinger with (specifically) a Bible. Well, of course that wasn't going to be possible for obvious reasons.
So I decided "Screw it, let's make it work." Turns out it justifying stuff isn't hard when you're the DM. Be warned, some of this contains spoilers from other campaigns and from the origins of the universe in general. Keep in mind also that this takes massive liberties with real life religion and in no way reflects actual interpretations of said religion.
1) The Origin of Earth: We knew Earth 'exists' in the Pathfinder universe from the fifth Reign of Winter module, so we came up with Earth's origin. It was created by Ihys, brother of Asmodeus and co-creator to the universe, as a personal project away from the eyes of all gods. Even his closest friends only barely knew it existed, and even then not where it existed. He'd been increasingly concerned as to whether or not Asmodeus was right regarding free will and mortals, and at this point he was wondering if Asmodeus was right. He created man and woman and gave them a single, strict order. When they proceeded to commit the first sin, Ihys expelled them from paradise. He would then proceed to continue his attempts at heavy-handed, direct management of mortals, weighing obedience vs. free action.
2) The Betrayal: Ihys gets stabbed and killed by Asmodeus after finally deciding that free will and personal choice are more important than enslaved perfection. His physical form destroyed and his essence trapped in the Ihystear, the only remnant of Ihys is a long shadow of his power and conscience that survived in Terra. Unable to keep the gods unaware of his private world and having it as his only means of escape, Ihys decided to use his last remaining power to reincarnate in a mortal body, then commit a sacrifice of pure selflessness that would undo the strictures he had bound to humanity whilst hiding their existence from the multiverse. Magic and divine power would not touch Earth and the large swathe of reality surrounding it and genesis could happen on any world within Ihys' barrier through divine means. The influence of the gods still bleeds through, though, inspiring and influencing human culture. Ihys no longer had the power to grant spells or influence the world. He entered a deep sleep, the shadow of his subconscious mind only barely able to influence anything and only through incidental reaction. His restoration as a full god is likely to never happen, as it would be a task that would require an unbelievable amount of divine power not possible to be achieved by any but Asmodeus (with the remnant of the Ihystear and Ihys' dormant shadow in the Terra realm.
3) Where the character comes in: My friend's character was a preacher in the 1900s, possibly 1950s. Through means I've not yet determined, he was transported to Golarion. Lovecraftian influence? A whim of Ihys' shadow? For whatever reason, he appeared in a desert in Osirion with full body burns and no name, rescued by locals and taken to the Pharasmins in Wati to be interred under the belief he was dead (he wasn't). He remembers nothing of his past life, but has a Bible with him and maintains a strong conviction in its writing even when called a lunatic for worshiping 'fictional deities'.
I'll be the first to admit all of this is extremely contrived, but I felt like sharing it.
C'thulhu appeared on Earth. Ihys was not happy. Continents were split, a huge flood happened. C'thulhu went to sleep. Served doubly to punish the extremely cruel, arrogant, and monstrous Atlantean civilization that had sprung up while saving a few who at least were decent people.
