yeah i dont wouldnt say its a black and white as jacob is purely good and MIB is purely evil
there is alot of religious/philosophical metaphors and imagery but i wouldnt say anything its literal like someone is actually jesus or the devil or thats actually jacob and essau ( youve got egyptian ..the hyrogliphs and the images of anubis ( summoning the smoke monster) and thawert ( the statue) and youve got christian too with saviors ( he who will save us all) and the idea of redemption, not to mention some eastern themes too ) so its got alot of that but to me its about seemingly oppossing concepts
jacob represents free will ( think the progress comments and what he told ben before he was stabbed) MIB is fate ( they have no choice and it will always end the same)
the same as john is man of faith jack is man of science..
i dont even think jacob and MIB are equals, i think jacob has created this game and is and using humanity as the game pieces. i think its all to prove a point about free will ( choice, faith) vs determinism (fate, science) so i dont think he is evil because it seems he does believe in humanity i just think its just a game to him the players are expendable and its thats been repeated time after time after time and the MIB has been forced to play along all that time and has grown tired of it.
think this scene
or this KICKASS promo
everything youve seen on the island has been a play to find the loophole in some preset rules they have to play by ( it seems ben and widmore have to play by those rules too) the whole compass thing and how that started the false belief that locke was special is just an awesome mind **** that i cant even begin to go into.
it seems jacob knew that MIB might find a loophole and seems to have a back up plan just incase. ( i think they they're coming refers to the people he touched/on that list. not his body guards.
im still confused on who was using the cabin and if the others were taking orders from MIB impersonating jacob..remember in season 2 sawyer , kate and juliet were being forced to build the runway for ajira 316 on hydra island.. remember the others said jacob told them to build it.. so why would he tell them to biuld the runway that led to his death..unless it was all planned.