Gary R. Lindberg likes to start with the smallest stories. A Golden Retriever in Wabasha, Minnesota, wanted so much to play that it would knock him down every time he reached out to pet it. Again and again, Gary stood up, brushed himself down, and tried again. The lesson learned before he turned six was perseverance.
This attitude of refusal to give in, asking the same question in different ways until a new answer appeared, followed Lindberg through continents and decades. Born in Minneapolis and raised in California, he was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and would spend his life interweaving history, science, faith, and human experience.
The boy who learned persistence from a dog in Minnesota grew into a man who would traverse the globe, navigate through various cultures, lead in corporate settings, and finally embark into writing about the most elusive subject of all: God. At 82 now, Lindberg has combined a life of inquiry toward his new book, God’s Existence: Deeper Thoughts for Greater Insights, a more thoughtful and accessible sequel to his first book, God’s Existence: Truth or Fiction? The Answer Revealed.
A Life of Service and Inquiry
The kind of life Lindberg has lived has been incredible in scope and texture. Although he studied history, he was very much engaged in and influenced by the protests and debates that swept the campus in the 1960s. The Free Speech Movement was as much an influence on him as were his own teachers, instilling the idea that sometimes the questions are just as important as the answers.
After graduating, he joined the Peace Corps and went to the Ivory Coast. During his Peace Corps service, he taught primary school children and their teachers how to grow vegetables more effectively in a tropical climate. In a summer break, he worked in a village to teach villagers gardening techniques, learned humility from those people, and was able to form bonds that fate and duty would never sever: “They named a child after me.” For a young man from Minnesota, this was a recognition occasion. He had been accepted into another family, another story.
His service continues to grow. The U. S. Navy was his next stop as he initiated himself into the mantra of discipline and duty. When he became a man of the world, however, he pursued a 43-year career in human resources and safety management. It made him approach problems a certain way: Terminate the terms, specify the conditions, and separate unsafe acts from unsafe environments. That same kind of rigorous analysis is what he applies to scripture.
“I was always trained to ask what really caused an event,” he says. “Was it carelessness, or was it a missing safeguard? When I looked at the Bible and at science, I found myself asking the same kinds of questions.”
The New Book: Bridging Science and Faith
In Deeper Thoughts for Greater Insights, Lindberg tackles a question that has at one time or another split the sincere believer and the so-called agnostic: But why do science and scripture appear to contradict each other? Lindberg’s answer is refreshing and daring in that the two are not subject to contradiction or conflict: If God exists, then scripture and science both emerge from the one source, and any apparent contradiction could be of human origin. One of the common stories found in Genesis, to be considered with scientific creationism, is the alleged timetable of creation. For example, Lindberg points out that the days could just as well mean epochs, or great lengths of time. The ancient authors of the Bible did not possess the scientific language which we use today, but that does not mean they did not teach the truth. Another enigma that has puzzled readers for centuries is the identity of Cain’s wife in the land of Nod. For Lindberg, this is less a problem than a clue that ancient writers recognized populations outside their immediate lineage.
There has often been the assumption of a global flood; however, the Great Flood might have been regional, recorded by somebody who considered the “whole earth” to be his horizon. So, he suggests, seemingly contradictory things are really translation, context, and interpretation:
“Science and scripture, he says, “are not enemies. They are two languages describing the same reality.”
Reading Genesis and Exodus with New Eyes
With his approach to Exodus, Lindberg introduces reverence tempered with realism. Archaeologists till now have come up with no definite evidence about Moses and a Hebrew exodus from Egypt. For certain scholars, this negative implication is conclusive. It is not so for Lindberg.
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” he thrusts in front of his readers. History is filled with corrections. We once thought the Earth was flat. We once considered it heresy that Galileo propounded the sun to be the center of the solar system and jailed him because of that. Why should we assume those silences of today will last through the ages?
Instead of dismissing the account found in the Scriptures, Lindberg asks that one bear with its translation and be open to future discoveries. He insists that the Bible was given in particular times and places, under languages that change over the centuries. To set oneself against the Bible in the sense that it should be respected word for word as a category or symbol of any today is really to miss the point.
The job, he held, is not to overthrow the Bible with science or vice versa, but rather to let both speak until they lift into a harmony.
Evolution, Meteors, and Divine Tools
Lindberg’s willingness to embrace scientific explanations while situating them within divine authorship may be his most distinctive contribution.
He does not deny evolution. He accepts it as the best available explanation of life’s development. Yet he refuses to see it as excluding God. “If a meteor ended the dinosaurs’ reign,” he writes, “does that remove God from authorship or is the meteor itself one of God’s tools?”
To make his point, he uses the metaphor of puzzles. A single piece can be confusing in isolation. Only when placed within the larger frame does it make sense. Evolution, in his view, is one such piece. The larger frame is divine intention.
This argument led him to call it the Directed Life Hypothesis. Unlike some versions of Intelligent Design, Lindberg’s idea does not reject evolutionary science. Instead, it looks at the very directionality evolution seems to have toward greater complexity as evidence for a guiding intelligence.
Critics and Reviews
Reviews of the book underscore both its courage and its limits.
The San Francisco Book Review described it as “a brave attempt to bridge the great divide” between science and scripture. The review praised Lindberg’s clarity and sincerity while noting that some arguments could be expanded.
BookLife reiterated the assessments, emphasizing the book’s balanced approach. It considered his approach as “encouraging” middle ground that asks readers to rethink when and why Genesis and Exodus were written.
Lindberg’s prospects largely depend upon the literalist being involved or not, being hardened, or hardened atheist. He cannot be sure one will be able to exert any influence on such a person. Lindberg’s path, in more practical terms, is to entertain the layman by opening space where questions are freely asked without the ghosts of repressions at any moment, and doubts stand beside faith.
Media Spotlight
The ideas in Deeper Thoughts for Greater Insights have reached audiences beyond the printed page. Lindberg has appeared on a growing number of media platforms.
- On BrightWord Books Podcast, he explained how science and scripture can complement one another.
- On The Spotlight Network with Logan Crawford, he reflected on his personal journey and the persistence that shaped it.
- On The Chris Voss Show, he outlined his Directed Life Hypothesis and its implications for believers and skeptics.
- In Fox5 San Diego coverage, he was profiled as a thoughtful voice seeking dialogue.
These appearances matter, not only for publicity but for the chance to model humility in public. Lindberg does not claim to have solved the mysteries of creation. He claims only that they deserve to be approached with respect.
A Balanced Legacy
Lindberg is candid about the subject of his absence of knowledge. He admits the gaps and open questions in archaeology, areas of unresolved consensus in theology, and unsettled questions in science. He maintains, however, that humility is a sign of high wisdom, not a mark of weakness.
The legacy he hopes to leave behind, he says, will not be in certainties but in ways of thinking. He urges readers to think about all translations carefully; always consider contexts of ancient writers; never let scientific nor theological authority claim infallibility.
Truth for him is not some trophy that people gather over time. It is a direction-the oriented search that takes a lot of patience, perseverance, and openness.
The metaphor becomes clear as he reflects on the really good childhood lesson he got with the Golden Retriever. Life, faith, and science will all send us crashing down. The only way forward is to get up, dust off, and try again.
Further Resources
- God’s Existence: Deeper Thoughts for Greater Insights on Amazon
- Author’s official site: garyrlindberg.com
- Reviews: San Francisco Book Review, BookLife
- Media: BrightWord Books Podcast, The Spotlight Network, The Chris Voss Show, Fox5 San Diego
