Okay, here goes.
1.) I like the idea that Ben didn't go into the church because he was waiting for Alex's reawakening. I also like the idea that he wasn't sure if he was worthy to move on. Or rather, that JACK didn't think he was worthy. I'm more apt to believe that Sideways World (all of it, even the parts that didn't involve Jack) were created by Jack's subconscious. Like, his soul could remember bits and flashes of people that were important to him, but not enough to put the story together, so his soul pieced together this crazy-ass story to try and make sense of the memories (much like your brain will do while you sleep). So Jack didn't want Ben to come along for his ride. Doesn't mean Ben won't or hasn't already crossed over and Jack will run into him in the afterlife.
2.) Doc Jensen had what I think is the best theory of what 'the light' is. It seems clear now that the 'loophole' didn't involve killing all of the candidates. MIB just needed Jacob dead so that his rules would no longer apply. Jense maintains that MIB (or more specifically Smokey, as that is his true form) is just a soul, no corporeal body. When Desmond pulled the cork, Smokey lost his soul, but became a body. And everyone else did too (this ties into Sayid dying and being thrown into the holy water and coming back, but 'feeling nothing'. He had no soul!). Jack, Kate, Hurley, none of them had souls while the cork was removed. This would allow MIB to leave the island as he has matter now and is not just a soul, but it also allowed him to become mortal. And Jack too.
So they fight each other and MIB goes over the cliff and is dead, yay, but hey, we still don't have souls. And Jack realized (or Jensen postulates that he realized) that we probably need our souls. So he goes back and puts the cork back in, everyone gets their souls back, but he's still mortally wounded and dies.
Jensen says we need souls to get into the afterlife. If the cork had been permanently removed, no one anywhere would have had a soul and no one anywhere would have moved on which thus leads to 'all hell breaking loose'. By putting the cork back, Jack ensured that his friends and everyone else in the world would be able to move in.
Much like Jesus Christ sacrificing himself so that people might get everlasting salvation....
I hope Vincent's in the afterlife, but if you believe animals don't have souls, that would explain why he wasn't in the Holy Church of All Religions....
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