Death takes a vacation—wackiness ensues
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By Hoodoo
- Death takes a vacation—wackiness ensues
- Created: Nov 15, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 2.12: Fire + Water
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
I find these quotes to be pretentious…
— Hoodoo
“He (God) can’t see this island any better than the rest of the world can.”-Ben
Ben’s cryptic phrase has got me thinking lately. I think that he was referring to how the island seems to be invisible, or it did at least before the hatch implosion, and so no one could see it, not even God. I believe one of the Swan’s purposes was to make the island seem invisible via electromagnet cloaking.
After the key was turned, however, the cloak covering the island was released, and it was once again visible. After this happens we are introduced to course correction: the way of the universe; the way your fate is pre-determined and that if you somehow evade your demise, it will only be temporary because course correction will eventually get you.
Mulling over the timing of introducing the hatch implosion and course correction, was there some way that course correction was stopped by the island being invisible or by some other mean? Could God really not see the island, like Ben said, and therefore couldn’t control the inland’s inhabitants’ fate? I think the two might be connected.
The philosopher Mikhail Bakunin once said: “If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.” Is that what they did or attempted to do for the time that the island was invisible?
Just a minor brain storm I had, so feel free to give some feed back or throw tomatoes at me—which ever you like.
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | Benjamin Linus | 3.20, 4.9, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1733 |
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.20 | Two for the Road | 5-3-2006 | Ana-Lucia | 96 |
tomato thrown. I think you’re theory presents a good question. If there is a God, and he is omnipotent, then no cloaking device would be able to stop him from seeing the island. If there is no God, why bother trying to hide the island from him? Its kind of like the age old question, can God make a boulder even he can’t move? Either answer limits God’s powers. Keep it up HooDooer
I don’t believe in god stuff and superstitions generally. That said, I allow for the possibility of some kind of higher power in Lost’s fictional universe.
So, if there is a god. and it can’t see the island, what does that mean for the souls of people who die there?
Is that who whispers?
An omnipotent god is only one possibility. Maybe he’s not. Why is always assumed that he is?
Isn’t that the very definition of a god? At least in the modern understanding?
Gods with limits is an ancient view. There were gods of the ocean, gods of thunder, gods of war, gods of fertility. A god for every unexplained phenomenon. When the Jews invented monotheism, by definition, it had to explain the entire natural world. In spite of christians breaking it up into three pieces and still insisting on calling it one god, the fact is that monotheism is the reigning god concept.
So, if we want a single god, then it has to explain/rule everything. That leads us back to … omnipotent.
BTW, plus one point, just for the heck of it.
+1 Hoodoo, that’s got me thinking if it becomes something coherent i will be back to post properly
+1 thought-provoking theory. When I read your theory I thought exactly the same as locekeko.
Katydid’s comments made me think about how Ben seems omnipotent and omniscient at first, but is slowly revealed not to be - it is all smoke and mirrors [and theatrical make-up]. Is this a godly metaphor? No sure how relevant it is but just wanted to throw it out there…
Whew! Thanks for the comments guys!
Although I consider myself an atheist, I think that the way Lost has provided us with a definition of course correction, and how it seems our fate is pre-determined, seems to suggest that there is some form of God or an omnipotent being in the Lost reality.
What could turn course correction off, though? Was it like Ben said, God can’t see them, therefore he can’t ‘correct’ them? Was Dharma’s plan all along to break the constraints of ‘fate’ in this sense? It’s a far more literal approach than I usually like to take, but it’s just a thought.
Could be a reference to the Klingon cloaking device..
People who think they are almighty (Ben or Jacob) would be the ones to refuse to acknowledge God…
If they are some Utopian society builders, the absence of a religion or almighty creator narrative history may be their downfall. When would Ben ever have received religious instruction on the island. When he talks of God, he is talking about a concept he cannot even imagine.
Hoodo, Was “the island” truly visible, though? The freighter is apparently 80 miles off the coast, and although I can’t recall Naomi’s exact words, “the island” wasn’t visible, until the night she parachuted from the helicopter, and caught a momentary glimpse of it.
In the season finale, Jack had to give Minkowski the coordinates to get to “the island”, so I am still a bit confused on that issue.
I agree that one of the purposes of the Swan Station was to aid in cloaking “the island”, and / or making it more difficult to pinpoint.
Great discussion and comments! I agree with Locko and Tree, also. Nice work! +1
Dab: If I had to hazard a guess, I would think that, because the island was under the e-mag cloaking for so long, it now fades in and out of visibility, possibly every 108 minutes. I think that there is some permanent, lasting effect from being ‘under the radar’ for so long.
I think you’re right about that, Hoodo! Also, TLG is used in a similar fashion. I posted a theory some time ago, which involved sonar cloaking “the island”. Countries worldwide use a security system, oddly enough called “cerebus”, to guard their harbours from enemy attacks!
Very nice work!
Dab: I think you’re spot on about TLG hidng the island from sonar of any kind, and that cerberus part is interesting!
doesn’t the islands visibility key in with solstice and equinoxes? i read a post detailing that each time anybody came to, or saw, or heard the island (including sam and danielles team hearing the numbers transmission and naomis arrival) relate almost exactly to the on-island dates and times for these events. this might only work for those of us who believe the island is in the south america / africa area though.
i think this relates to portals/ vortexes and translocation, i’m fairly sure our losties’ arrival was one of these periods too, anyone remember the date/time?
portals could be one the islands special properties, allowing controlled travel to any of the other portal locations. but does it stretch beyond the creators’ definition of pseudo-science?
Hoodoo,Great title! I think Ben is being pretentious in that statement, and hinting at the fact that the island is somehow invisible to the outside world, but you could definitely go the other way and believe that the inhabitants are somehow outside of Gods laws.That would be interesting!
In regards to the possible cloaking device being used to hide the island, I wonder if the Looking Glass station also is part of the device.Naomis Helicopter did seem to come down in around the same area as the LG station.
I posted an article a while ago about the casimir effect and the last sentence was very interesting in regards to dabs idea of the island being cloaked……
Prof Leonhardt leads one of four teams - three of them in Britain - to have put forward a theory in a peer-reviewed journal to achieve invisibility by making light waves flow around an object - just as a river flows undisturbed around a smooth rock….
Interesting that the island is said to have casimir like properties.Could this be how Ben has been hiding the island.+1 and interesting comments.
Hoodo, Glad you liked the sonar and “cerebus” information.
Locks CD, You are absolutely correct about the solstice and equinox theories. Those elements along with others seem to play a part in the mystery of “the island”, and why and when it can be seen. I believe the build up and release of the electromagnetism has something to do with the visibility as well.
The sonar or the “cerebus” in TLG, is capable of picking up signals and sending signals out, which provide false readings, making it impossible for any kind of technology to pinpoint the precise location. Submarines, Oil Rigs, etc., also use this modern day technology.
Juliet came to the island on 9/22/01. The autumnal equinox.
The autumnal equinox occurs on 9/22/04. The plane crashes. It seems though, that this is because of Desmond’s error, and doesn’t seem to be related to a celestial event.
The only other solstice or equinox that happens during the Losties time on the island is the winter solstice of 2004, which is on 12/21/04. There is a food drop from Dharma. But since there are other food drops (aren’t there?) This doesn’t look to me like anything more than a coincidence.
These just don’t seem like anything special to me, just…stuff that happened.
Is there more to the equinox/solstice thing? Are there a lot of prior events that happened on those days? Inquiring minds want to know.
Please hurry. I thirst for knowledge.
Ockham is probably turning over in his grave right now as we try to tie all these connections into the solution. They are, in my opinion, nothing more than red herrings meant to make us fuss over on these websites. I doubt the coinciding of the equinoxes and people’s arrivals on the island will play any significance in Lost.