That's hysterical, Pen!

He's still adamant about this.
Even after I made him read 3 articles at DarkUfo and also linked him to interviews with TPTB.

He says there "adamant denial" is proof it IS purgatory. He thinks Jacob is the oldest one stuck in the purgatory....*smacks head*

Well men can be stubborn, can't they?

That's too funny.  Jade is on some other board all the time and in their Lost thread some of the people there swear its purgatory just because Cooper said it was hell.

aj - Yeah, a con man says so it has to be true.

LOL

The Island on LOST can not be Purgatory.  I haven't watched a single episode of the show, granted, but using Catholic Doctrine, it's impossible; those who are in Purgatory are people who are going to Heaven.  In Catholic doctrine, they are in Purgatory to contemplate their sins and ready themselves for Heaven.  If they are damned, they go to Hell.  Purgatory only functions in a "salvific" manner.

That and the writers have said it's not Purgatory.

And I apologize sincerely for double posting, but I joined this forum solely to share and shoot down this really interesting, but impossible theory.

I thought I'd provide some evidence for the lazy skeptics out there who can't be bothered with reading up on the matter and consulting preists (who have been known to make mistakes).

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm

Purgatory is for people who have already been forgiven of venial/non-mortal sins by God.  They have not had their relationship with God damaged by Mortal Sin, or more practically, have confessed and been forgiven of Mortal Sin, having had their relationship with God repaired through contrition.

All that and I'm not even Catholic :-).

welcome to the forum...jesus freek...kidding...thanks for sharing.

Welp, I've done it since the beginning of this thread, may as well continue defending this theory. Of course, it is not going to be purgatory because the writers did in fact say so, and it has grown deeply unlikely what with the Losties (the Oceanic 6) being reunited with the regular world and what not.

That said, I disagree with you on your reasoning as to why it cannot be. Firstly, all you did was define purgatory, or rather retrieve a definition of it (abeit from the right source for the point). You provided no reason why the island could not be purgatory. In all possibility, the Losties could be dead, even legitimate deaths of a plane crash. They very well could be venial sinners working towards salvation in the afterlife. There is no reason against this. As I said previously, people who die for example may have successfully attained a clean slate (as a lot of decent people have died...people generally doing good deeds on the island/not causing problems despite a tarnished past...Eko, Libby, Charlie so forth).

Furthermore, this is a very specific Catholic doctrine you are speaking of whereas faith and a concept like purgatory are very, very malleable and open to interpretation. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy for example, purgatory is deeply defined with specific trials the deceased face in purgatory. A concept quite relative to the trials of the island.

It is also said (even by Catholics) that you are not supposed to know you are in Purgatory. So a facade like the island would not be impossible. Qutie frankly, the term purgatory is not just limited to the Pope approved definition and the writers could have drawn from any number of sources, incuding their own imagination. Basically I'm saying, yes, that's a fine definition, but that doesn't disprove anything. The writers do haha.

The writers have revealed that the island is not purgatory

Sawyer/Mark brought that point up in his thread as well. I think he is just defending the possibility (if the writers hadn't already announced that it's not). Just because it's not a correct theory, doesn't mean it isn't a good one.

dude, the writers have said its not purgatory.

hey...did you know the numbers add up to 108?!?!?!