[blackshirtboy]

I realize they directly state that the island was real but if you look at it another way then the entire show becomes about Jack accepting his death. From there it isn't hard to be able to assume the entire events of the show were in his head as demonstrated by when he puts the cork back in (accepting his fate) and reappears by the riverbed, from there he walks into the forrest and lays down exactly where he woke up in the first episode. He then closes his eye to mirror it opening in the first episode.
You could assume that the entirety of the show takes place between him opening and closing his eyes right there in the space of seconds.
This is also pointed to by Desmond when he says "there's a place we can go where we can see everyone again" or something similar. Desmond has been trying to get Jack to move on for the whole series while the character of Locke has been continually challenging his beliefs and keeping him on the mortal plane. Only when Locke is revealed as the embodiment of this (when he's possessed by the black smoke) does Jack realize that. Jacob offers him salvation and other people are other aspects representing his life and his mind I'm sure if you think about it hard enough.

But there's just as much evidence pointing to the island being real! It's that final scene with the abandoned crash site that throws you off!


Also in relation to what you said about questions being answered: I had none! That's what pisses me off. They spend this whole season answering everything and then at the end when you're expecting something big and awesome and possibly DHARMA/ sciency related the writers are just like "pffft, whatever, it's heaven." It just feels like such a cop out.

I liked the Battlestar Galactica ending, it wasn't great but it was ten times more satisfying then Lost was.