It's about Bunnies...and Eternity by cleelee

Heaven is reputed by many to be the pinnacle of human existence, the very thing we are all striving for. Yet in the song "Imagine", John Lennon suggests that the world would be much better without heaven. Many agree that the concept of God is a comforting, empowering concept that should enrich believer's lives. Yet millions of people every year suffer and die because of the concept of God.

Why do we drink the Kool-Aid? Why do we murder leaders that espouse love? Why do we board planes and fly them into buildings, destroying thousands? If faith is so great, why is it killing us?

Isn't belief essential to life? Isn't heaven? If we were fighting over oxygen, would we consider the solution to be for us all to just stop breathing?

These are the types of questions that Lost asks. The stories and characters demonstrate how complex answers are to questions like: Why do we use faith to hurt each other?

Well, it depends on who your are.

Jack: Because our hero told us we would never succeed at being a hero ourselves

Kate: Because running away is easier than facing our problems

Sawyer: Because we were left alone by death

Locke: Because we want to feel special

Charlie: Because we want someone, anyone, to lead us and tell us the answers

Desmond: Because we want to be respected

Ben: Because the only way we feel we belong to a group is if we are the leader, the administrator, the "fix-it man"

Danielle: Because we were isolated

Eko: Because poverty, crime, or politics shaped our destinies

Juliet: Because we saw love fail, and stopped believing we deserved love

Miles: Because we were given gifts or abilities that we did not want

Charlotte: Because we are obsessed with questions about our past

Boone: Because we want things that we shouldn't

Shannon: Because others desire us for their own use, but they don't value us

Sayid: Because we don't believe in ourselves

Hurley: Because we question our sanity

Man in Black: Because we believe somewhere else life is better

Jacob: Because we have a responsibility, and we have to make decisions

And so on. Of course, some characters have multiple motives, and participated in multiple scenarios in the course of the show. Here's a few examples:

John Locke was a broken man. He had nothing. No parents, no money, no love, no respect, no legs. When he crashed on the island, he rejoiced in the miracle of his healing, and rightly so. But he didn't stop there. He pushed forward with the conviction that he was "special". He went looking for the divine, but a divine that would worship John Locke in turn. What he found was a man. A bitter, angry man that saw Locke's faith as a way to manipulate him. The "Island" God that Locke worshipped was actually "The Man in Black". Beginning with Boone, countless people suffered because of Locke's misplaced faith.

We must remember, the miracle was real. John was truly chosen as a candidate. John was right, but he was also horribly wrong. He was chosen, not because "God" thought he was special, but because Jacob knew he was broken.

John's mistake does not stop there. Like a ripple in a pond, it ensnared others like Jack and Ben, who made decisions based on John's experiences, or what they believed John was experiencing.

Unlike Locke, Charlie had no interest in being the divine himself. He wanted to find it in someone else. His church, his band, his brother, Claire, Locke, Rose, Eko, Desmond. He wanted to prove his devotion to his "Gods" through sacrifice. His career for his church, his beliefs for his band, his health for his brother, his drugs for Locke, time and labor for Eko, etc. His belief in Desmond's visions led him to sacrifice himself for the most worthy and vulnerable survivors, a young mother and her fatherless child. He pressed forward even though Desmond himself was uncertain. And his sacrifice led instead to many, many deaths, the separation of Claire and Aaron, and much suffering over many years for his friends.

Should Locke and Charlie have given up on faith? To answer that, we have Jack, the Man of Science. A skilled Doctor with no bedside manner. A healer that lacks true heart. A lover that controls, ignores, stalks, self destructs. A God unto himself. He walks among us, yet he is not one of us. He leads, and he bumbles. He just wants to fix what's broken, not connect to the imperfect that exists. He can't move on. He can't forgive. He can't let anything be out of his control. The harder he tries to save everyone, the more they die.

When Jack finds his faith, he still bumbles. He can't forgive himself for losing Kate. He can't move forward with her. He wants to go back. He tries to control time and experience itself. But at least he is finally in the game, and though he makes missteps until the bitter end, he does at last save the day. He places his faith not only in himself, but in his friends. He sacrifices himself not for a chosen few that he cares about, to impress a "God" that he chose, but for the Island (and the divine) itself, for humanity, and for the world.

What about Aaron? A fake psychic finally had a vision! He believed being the recipient of this vision gave him the right to withhold the description of the vision from Claire, and manipulate her for her "own good". If his visions were anything like Desmond's, we know they were imperfect. Many found this story line flawed. But it demonstrated how we can consider our visions and beliefs more important than people themselves, (putting a pregnant young mother on an airplane that will crash?!)and how we place our own children in danger for our beliefs in another person's spiritual experiences. An experience that we don't even know the details of!

Ethan and the Others wanted Aaron and manipulated Claire because of the loss of their own children. Claire wanted Aaron because she was stranded on an island with no friends or family, and no youthful lifestyle to enjoy anymore. Charlie wanted Aaron because he desired Claire, and because he wanted to prove he could be responsible and take care of someone. The survivors wanted Aaron because he comforted them when Boone died, and rescue was so uncertain, by demonstrating that life goes on. Kate wanted Aaron because he gave her something safe to care about. Aaron on the island was important. Not in the "Island God that mates with Ji Yeon and spawns Super Kids that resolve the Other's baby issues" kind of way. He was important in that he touched these people's lives. Not because of who he was, but because of what they needed him to inspire in themselves.

Michael took the opposite tact. Like Jack, he rejected faith. He believed everyone should take care of themselves. He ultimately wanted little to do with the other survivors. He didn't trust himself to be a father, and he didn't trust them to help him take care of his child. Even though many of his experiences with people were rewarding, as soon as things took a bad turn, trust and friendship flew out the window. In his mind, he was alone. He would steal, lie, murder and sell out his "friends" to save his son. Life was a war, and everyone else, including Walt in some instances, was the enemy. It's no surprise that he is still on the island, unable to cross over. Michael's aware enough to apologize for Libby's death, but when Hurley asks him tenderly if there is any way that he, Hurley can help, he shuts down and tragically gives Hurley the same advice that condemned him to the island. Take care of yourself. Look to your own well being.

They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. Well, isn't that the point? The island without candidates is just an island with a light cave. A light fixture without a light bulb doesn't illuminate. What about God without man?

Are we living lives that have fixtures, but no bulbs? God but not man? Is that why we can wade through blood we shed, and then kneel, fold our hands and devoutly pray? Is fighting, destroying, and corrupting so bad? What if we stopped viewing ourselves with such contempt and started fighting against our inner demons, destroying things like human oppression, and learn to use corruption as nature does, to fuel a renewal? What if we valued each other as much as we value our faiths and our God(s)?

It's a timely message, and I think it was delivered quite masterfully. Why wasn't it spelled out more clearly? The scene with Hurley and Sayid in the final episode demonstrates that completely. Hurley tells Sayid exactly what his soul needs, and Sayid disdainfully rejects his advice. Sometimes, you can be told, and sometimes you have to stare out at the ocean for a while.

So what about all of the mysteries Lost leaves us with? Maybe the point is, we should ask ourselves which questions are more important:

a. Who built the Statue?, or
b. Can Locke forgive Ben?

a. How did Mother come to the Island? or
b. Will Christian and Jack ever reconcile?

a. Is Saturday or Sunday the Holy Day? or
b. Does my neighbor have enough to eat?

a. Does God approve of Christmas trees? or
b. How do we provide clean water to every person on earth?

Maybe we need to ask different questions. Maybe we need to question ourselves more closely when we experience God - when we are healed, when we find a hatch, when we face off with an Other group, when we are chased by a Smoke Monster, when we trek to the Temple, contact a Freighter for rescue, or befriend someone who has lived far longer than normally possible. In the Lost Universe, behind every one of these instances was not a God, or a miracle, but a man. Not a Super Man, but a broken man. Not the divine, but a mirror of ourselves.

At the same time, Lost does not suggest that Faith is meaningless, or God does not exist. Lost actually makes the case for Faith, for God, and for the Afterlife with the touching final scenes in the church. The joy on everyone's face, the excitement, the sense of homecoming, very beautifully expresses our need for those things to complete our experiences.

Lost suggests that we need God, and we need Faith, and we really need EACH OTHER. And we need each other in part because no human being has all of the exact answers to who or what God is or how to apply Faith. Just when we think we do, we realize the light in the hatch is Desmond, the monster running towards us is Shannon, Ben is just a frightened little boy, the freighter holds a team of mercenaries, Jacob just wants to interview us for a job, and it's the loveable loser Hurley, not the tormented hero Jack, who has the great destiny to rule the Island.

Nothing illustrates this so brilliantly as the scene with Desmond and Jack outside the cave. Desmond describes "purgatory" and radiantly suggests that maybe he can find a way to bring Jack over, too. Desmond had seen the truth, and through the best and sweetest of intentions, he thoroughly revealed he had no idea what the truth meant.

In the end, we are finally told the absolute, final, truth by Darlton in the guise of Christian, the Father who knew nothing about Fatherhood. Jack tearfully asks where they are going. Christian gently smiles as if surprised that Jack believes he has the answer, and suggests, “let’s go find out“.