I really don't know. I do know that the show has grown organically even for them, and that not EVERYthing was planned from day one. So that would be a very early quote I would think, but I would still say that since day 1 they brought the concept of faith into play, knowing full well that no one has the answers to those questions.
you can believe what you want to believe
or you can give some credit to what the writers have actually said.
I did listen to that long (2 hour?) pod cast that some put up a couple of pages back
the two creators said (and I am paraphrasing) they got the contract for season one, 12? episodes
so they just threw in all the wild stuff, invisible monsters, polar bears, what ever they could think of
at best, they thought they would have a wild 12 episode dvd they would be popular and sell because it was so unpredictable
but then it got picked up, they had no road map, nothing was planned out.
They liked their Eko character and had more story for him. The guy was from England and hated Hawaii, he quit the show, so they killed Eko.
They liked the Ben Linus actor, who played a serial killer on The Practice, so they wrote a short 3 episode arc for him, in and out, is that less than the Ethan character?
Then Ben caught on, was gold, they decided to expand his character and story line
(so yes, the fans did help write this)*
Also they have said before they were stuck when they had
Kate and Sawyer in the cages.
Anyways somewhere along the line they realized they had a successful show and got a commitment for the 6 seasons, at that point they took what wild story lines they had throw out there
and made an effort to complete some kind on narrative story that would have a conclusion.
Also, the concept of time travel was not part of the original story until they wrote the episode 'The Constant"
that very good episode where Desmond was bouncing back and forth to different times while retaining consciousness.
anyways, I am a fan of this show
I just don't see the need to not fess up and say
"yeah, the writing is real sloppy, at least it did not completely collapse on itself"
It has been fun, but this could have been so much better if they left half of the shit out.
this won't go down with the all time great
TV series like
Six Feat Under
The Sopranos
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
This belongs to the people that tell (convince) themselves
they are really watching something important
*this belongs to the American Idol fans