LOST Revisited 6-9 “Ab Aeterno”

Richard wants something in return. First, he asks for his wife back. Jacob can’t do that. He asks for his sins to be absolved. Jacob can’t do that. Finally, Richard asks to live forever, so that he never has to face the hell that awaits him. That, Jacob can do. This is interesting, especially in that Jacob can’t absolve sins but he can grant everlasting life. What we don’t know is whether, in the Lost cosmology, there is a God and a Heaven. It’s been implied that there is, but nobody is in a position to really know (aside from maybe Jacob). In Catholicism, sins can be absolved by a priest but in Protestantism, absolution comes only from God. I guess that means Jacob is a Protestant, at the very least.