At infinity's doorstep

SOME THINGS are simply beyond the reach of the human mind. Perhaps the biggest enchilada that we find indigestible is infinity. We can glimpse infinity's shadow. But grasping how (and why) it is cast seems impossible. Our biology (hardwired for finiteness in body and soul) makes us prisoners of a world not unlike Flatland in some respects, a fictional place where denizens experience life in only two dimensions. To Flatlanders, "height" is inconceivable. We, of course, are imprisoned in a finite, three-dimensional world. For us, infinity is analogous to height in Flatland. Yet, infinity exists. We can prove it mathematically. Still, it does not compute. How can there be no beginning and no end? How do we cope with the notional idea of a universe that always was and always will be?

Our visible universe began (we think) with the Big Bang. Science has confirmed that it is still expanding (and may do so forever). Never mind what caused the Big Bang. The bigger question is what existed before it? This is the point where the human mind hits the wall and meets infinity. Most folks either shrug in resignation or chalk it up to God's strange and mysterious ways. Others say nothingness was the pre-intergalactic state. Perhaps. But what is nothingness? How did it come to be and what caused it to end? These questions inevitably lead us back to the wall at infinity's doorstep. Something tells me that our universe (and perhaps God) is infinitely bigger and grander than we think it is. Some find this deeply frightening. I find it endlessly fascinating. For simply accepting infinity, even without understanding it, opens the mind to new possibilities about the true nature of universe. And that may be the key to cracking ajar the portal to its boundless mysteries.