One theory I've read this morning: Jacob and Smokey represent not-too-different ideas about religion, with Jacob being the more direct manipulator of events and Smokey the more natural law/deistic version. In this theory, the Losties are to a person happier and more self-actualized in the pocket universe because they have rejected the blind faith and superstition of the Island.

Murdering shitloads of people seems pretty directly manipulative to me.

Jon,

who murdered all the Dharma Initiative people (the people Richard and Ben gassed)? Did they do that in service to Jacob?

Richard told Ben to do it, so it was probably Jacob's fault. Jacob is clearly manipulative. My point was that so is Esau.

Do we know that Jacob told Ben to do it, or is that just the assumption? Sometimes, I think of Ben and some of the other Others as religious extremists.

I think we're supposed to think that.

Jon, I don't think I described this theory that well. Smokey, while a murderer of a bunch of people (which, for all we know, is a recent thing), hasn't tried in the past to meddle in the affairs of people for his own means, choosing instead to kill some if he crosses them and ignore them otherwise. So he's generally been as indifferent to humanity as nature itself.

And I'm not endorsing it. I just read it and thought it interesting.

Smokey, while a murderer of a bunch of people (which, for all we know, is a recent thing), hasn't tried in the past to meddle in the affairs of people for his own means, choosing instead to kill some if he crosses them and ignore them otherwise. So he's generally been as indifferent to humanity as nature itself.

Hmmm. Well, it appears that Jacob could leave the island while Smokey could not, so Smokey's means of meddling has been somewhat more limited.

Jin and Sun are not allowed to be Adam and Eve, because the baby is still off the island.

Maybe the baby will come back to the island. It's a wild paradox because Sun nor the baby would likely have lived if they stayed on the island.