I believe that the island is one big experiment, and the Losties were pre-destine to end up there. Or maybe put there deplibertly (there was an earlier thread here talking about this and someone had a picture from the first scene of the pilot showing Jack on the ground with a flashlight next to him like someone maybe forgot it), but I think it is an experiment gone wrong. And I think it's a very long experiment, and things have gone wrong more than once.

I also think that the DHARMA researchers on the island don't have any way off either. There's something/someone over them too.

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