A Beautiful Mind

     I'm awake at 3:50 a.m., not because I'm not sleepy, but because of my thoughts. I laid awake before that for hours pondering the universe and reality. I came to the conclusion that the universe is surrealistic, a type of doublethink - an irrational reality.
     Insanity is extreme unreasonableness; it is the ultimate irrational thinking. Surrealism is a mild form of irrationality, and if taken too far, may lead to insanity. Many artists of surrealism have purported to have been drug users to "see" what the normal mind cannot see if there is normality in thinking.
     In the book and movie, A Beautiful Mind, John Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia as he begins to lose touch with reality. His irrational mind somehow allowed him to see things hidden to rational minds. Eventually, Nash was hired by the Pentagon to decrypt encrypted enemy telecommunications. Even after his services were no longer required, Nash saw secret codes in everything. Eventually, Nash's mind lost contact with reality, as he became totally enmeshed in his thoughts of secret messages. His mind was the "beautiful mind" of the book and movie. If reality is a spinning sphere, Nash's mind went tangential. It was the black hole of reality where time became meaningless. He never even saw his daughter aging.
     My mind keeps me awake; like Nash, rather than allow me to sleep, I think until I'm worn out, then sleep only long enough to have the energy to think again. The other evening my friend commented, "You never quit thinking, do you?" It dawned on me that he was right; unless completely worn out, I never quit thinking. I was always that way, I suppose, but not compulsively as Nash.
     When I was in college, after a long evening of problem-solving, there was usually one problem that I could not solve. I slept with that problem until my mind resolved the solution. When the light shined on the answer, I would arise from my bed and write it down, then settle down to a deep and satisfying sleep. On my job, I took problems home with me and solved them as I lay silently. On more than one occasion I went to work in the wee morning hours and fixed problems with the solutions obtained as I rested.
     This morning God provided an answer for my "beautiful mind!" This may seem complex but God made it simple: I was wondering about the dilemma of the six-day creation and the distance between objects in the universe, and the time it takes for their light to reach my eyes here on earth. If God created, then he had to overcome time. It struck me that time is irrational and the universe is surreal. Not to diminish God, but just as Salvidore Dali and Pablo Picasso, God painted a surrealistic painting with light.
     I was comparing light to the path of a bullet. If it could be absorbed by the brain, the eyes see a bullet as it emerges from the gun. We need not wait until the bullet enters the eye to see the bullet, but it can be seen all along its trajectory even the instant it's fired. Perhaps light is much like the trajectory of a bullet. Maybe we see the light source before its rays travel through space. Just like the bullet, its source is seen before the light travels to the eyes. That makes time surreal as the only measure of time is based on light.
     That thought warps the concept of time, and that is the most notable surrealism. I saw warped time - a melting clock - in my mind as I tried to sleep.

Painting, "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvidore Dali

     John Nash had a persistent memory, and it warped time and reality as can be seen in Dali's painting. Unless something is a source of light, human eyes cannot see reality; it merely sees the reflections of reality. That vision of a speeding bullet is not real; it is merely light reflected from a mass. It doesn't become real until the mind comprehends it. Usually that is with the sound of the impact, or the infliction of burning pain. The speeding bullet is only sensed. Well, maybe time is the same way! John Nash warped time. Maybe God did that long before Nash to humble his creatures.
     Nash saw codes in everything. I see hidden mysteries in reality. Am I schizophrenic? I hope not, or that would be the new normal because scientists makes hypotheses because of inquiring minds. God Himself is mysterious:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Tim 3:16).

     I don't wonder about time, space, and matter. I wonder about how God defied time, space, and matter! He's God; He can do that. That's what gods do! God's painting of the universe is surreal - beyond the rational mind.

Westerlund 2: (NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team The original observations of Westerlund 2 were obtained by the science team: Antonella Nota (ESA/STScI), Elena Sabbi (STScI), Eva Grebel and Peter Zeidler )

     Whatever mystery hides in the melting clock painting hides in God's own Westerlund-type art work. Explain what you see in either picture. Dali's painting was much less surreal than what God painted. Art critics are still trying to decipher Dali's message, and astro-physicists are doing the same with God's. I submit that the mystery of God is so surreal that no one will ever figure out the miracle of the origin of the universe!
     The Tower of Babel was mankind's attempt to learn the mystery of creation. They wanted to know of only what God is privy. When they tried to reach the stars, rather than trust God's word - "In the beginning God generated the heaven and the earth" - they looked for another cause. God frowned on that because they diminished Him as Almighty Creator God. Subsequent to that, what happened?

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. (Gen 11:4-7)

     Like surrealists, the people of Babel did that of "which they have imagined." Astro-physicists imagine that the universe evolved, then make their hypotheses. Just as the people of Babel, they build their own towers - telescopes and space travel - to unravel the mystery that only God knows. They make themselves as gods.
     The consequence for the people of Babel was that their language was confounded. They became unable to communicate with one another effectively. Language translations are inexact and context is often irrational. The minds of the people became confused and they were scattered abroad.
     People who speak in tongues are perceived as crazy. Can you imagine the perceived insanity when men merely babbled to one another. That's what I hear with my special-type of hearing - philosophic men babbling. They profess to know what only God knows.
     In the beginning, there was likely one divine language. God encrypted it, and scientists are the "John Nashes," always trying to decrypt what God encrypted. Their wonderment is a sort of insanity, and they have a compulsion to make a greater name for themselves than God. Just think how the world will consider the scientist who comes up with a viable theory; The smartest man in the world killed God!
     In the Book of Acts in chapter two, scripture relates how the Ghost of Jesus came down and everyone heard each other in their own tongue. It seems God decrypted their babbling back to the original divine language. They finally understood "the mystery of Godliness" (1 Tim 3:16 above).
     As I laid in my bed this morning, I understood the mystery of Godliness; me nor anyone else will ever understand how the universe originated. It must be taken by faith regardless of what faith it is. Christians must have faith that if God can regenerate, He must be almighty enough to generate!