Another theory is that the Dharma Initiative is conducting an experiment with social engineering. All of the Lost victims have complex, troubled pasts that have locked each of them into a trajectory fated for destruction. By bringing them on an island cut off from their own personal world, they are forced to come to terms with their lives and discover the innate choice we are all given to start anew, on a blank slate, by breaking off with the past and learning to live in the present. Hence, Ben insists that Locke kill his father as a gesture of his commitment to becoming one of the Others. Becoming conscious of the burden of one's past and being relieved of it so one is truly free is a rite of passage on the island. It is ironic, that once Locke's father is killed by Sawyer, he must carry his dead body (although he is now free of the burden it represents) as he follows the trail left by the Others.