As we draw nearer to learning about the island, I am thinking about the events at hand in relation to the statue.

If the statue is Anubis, then he is the god who weighs the hearts of the dead to determine if they are worthy of entering the afterlife.

Now we have little Ben, near death with his chest cut open, being carried into the temple to be (I presume) healed by the island.

Last week, people were wondering if Ben dies, and is reborn into a Christian Shephard-like being, and that is the Ben we have known all along.

With this turn of events, I wonder Ben will die, and if someone (anubis?) will weigh his heart (figuratively) and decide that he is worthy to be reborn. He will be deemed a "good person" and be brought back.

Maybe he doesn't even have to die. Just deemed good, and worthy enough to be healed by the island.

I also feel that in the process of being healed in the temple, whatever than entails, he will gain knowledge of everything about the island.

Perhaps, if he dies and is brought back, he will have everlasting life, like the ankh symbolizes. It would explain why Ben can be beaten to a pulp a gazillion times, and never die. It would also explain why it was so important to get all these people back to the island. Without them, he would have just grown up a normal boy in a suburban home. No special island connection, no everlasting life, no leader of the Others - just a normal life.

Yeah, I really doubt that Lost will literally use figures from other religions like that. Lost has been built on a mythology that is heavily influenced by many things, including Egyptian gods, but is not about Egyptian gods.
A dark, dog like entity that can judge people's souls? Hmm...I think Lost has its own version of that.;)

Well... we did see in the previews for next week...


... (as well as in the TV guide mentionings) that Adult Ben must summon smokey "to be judged".

I think smokey is definately something that can judge whether you deserve to be on the island or not, hence the killing of various people. I really dont know how they are going to link all of this together without it sounding too much like egyptian history.
Also nice thought on that being the reason the O6 had to go back!

Yeah, I really doubt that Lost will literally use figures from other religions like that. Lost has been built on a mythology that is heavily influenced by many things, including Egyptian gods, but is not about Egyptian gods.
A dark, dog like entity that can judge people's souls? Hmm...I think Lost has its own version of that.;)

Let me explain better. I don't mean that a jackal headed dude is going to come strolling out of the Temple office to judge Ben. I fully expect Smokey to be the judge.

But say back in ancient times, when the early (Egyptian?) settlers met Smokey, they believed him to be Anubis in another form. We saw Smokey judge Eko and later found him unworthy. We have also seen Smokey manifest as different forms. So maybe he manifested to these Egyptian statue builders as Anubis. Or somehow by his actions, they believed him to be Anubis. Some face Smokey and survive. Others don't. They believed that Smokey was weighing hearts for worthiness, before deciding whether or not to let them live. In their belief system, this smoke being equaled Anubis. So they built a statue in his honor, and to stay on his good side.

I think part of the process Ben is going to experience will involve some judgement. Is he worthy for Otherhood? Is he good? And possibly, is he worthy of everlasting life?

I believe that the 'real' off the island egyptians' religious beliefs are based (within the world of Lost) on what they fellows saw on that particular island....