No it’s not terribly complicated. Wrong answers are complicated. Right answers are usually very simple.

The universe of Lost parallels the universe of Stephen King, whose work is an ongoing presence on the show. The Island is a parallel to the Dark Tower or the Rose in the Gunslinger books that are the basis of King’s metaverse. The Island is the central point of the earth and its spiritual source to which everything else is connected. What happens to the island, happens to the world.

The Island is the scene of the struggle between man’s better and worse natures. His angels and demons reflected in the choices those on the Island make that will determine the fate of the world.

What is the Island more specifically? The Garden of Eden.

The show’s religious overtones. Its emphasis on “Good People” and “Bad People” and the moral choices we make all lead up to this. What is at stake though is not just the fate of the people on the island. But mankind itself.

Man was expelled once from the Garden of Eden. This is mankind’s second chance to redeem itself on the Island, choosing good or evil. The Island is itself a test. The human presence on it gives those on the Island the chance to be saved or damned and to save or damn the world. In this way Desmond and others have the chance to save mankind.

The original Dharma Initiative sought a solution to man’s inevitable course of self-destruction. The way they found led them back to the Garden where man first “fell” and abused his free will by choosing knowledge over faith.

The way to the Garden of Eden was barred by the Angel with the everturning sword. Once you discard ideas of angels as chubby children with white wings, there is little difficulty in matching the Smoke Monster to the Angel, the guardian of Eden who bars the way with the ever turning sword, taking a form as a flexible smoke cloud that can strike anyone in any direction.

The Island is itself a test. The Angel also provides a test. Locke instinctively knew this and did not fear. Eko was given the chance to repent but rejected it. The fundamental choice lies in choosing between good and evil.

The Garden of Eden also had a snake. The original Adam and Eve of the Dharma Initiative, the DeGroots, found that there was a Serpent too. The Serpent seeks to consume and feed man from the Tree of Knowledge but not Life. The Others seek to harness the powers of the Island without respecting it. They attempt to possess it through research and study and in doing so choose Knowledge over Life.

Locke who chooses faith gains Life, the ability to walk again. Ben who chooses knowledge suffers the punishment of being subject to disease. The original punishment of the Garden of Eden, painful childbirth is visited far more harshly on the women of the Others who now die in childbirth.

The Island is closed off from the normal ordinary world. Aircraft cannot reach it without crashing. Extraordinary things can happen here because the potential inherent in the world, which was closed off when man fell is still present here, waiting for mankind to be prepared and ready to accept it. If man chooses well, that spiritual potential can be released enabling the kind of miracles that can be seen on the island. If not, then mankind will destroy itself without faith by using its knowledge and power to destroy itself.

This is the second chance at the Garden of Eden for man. Everyone chooses, looking back at their life and making their choices. Good or bad. People choose. Some die.

The ultimate question of Lost is- are these people worth saving?