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I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
That might be the credo of Ghostbusters, but lots of people you know are at least a little bit anxious.
Depending on which poll you consult, half of Americans believe ghosts are real, and half of that group claim they’ve had an up-close-and-personal spectral encounter.
Numbers like that have driven the so-called “Four Horsemen” of the New Atheism – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens – absolutely crazy.
One of the Horsemen’s primary goals has been to demystify the universe – to stamp out the tyranny of religion, myth, and superstition. As more and more schools began to teach the perspective that human beings are just an exquisite array of chemicals assembled by chance, the Four expected the whole idea of the supernatural would begin to fade away.
It hasn’t happened.
Or as that handsome ghost Patrick Swayze might put it, “Boo!”
Even in the most secular Western countries – the ones where multiple generations have been told that people are nothing more than particles – there is a steady upsurge in curiosity about astrology, the occult, haunted houses, and UFO’s. As of this writing, there are more licensed witches in France than Catholic priests.
Cable TV channels keep churning out popular weekly dramas that feature Ghost Hunters and the seemingly never-ending search for Bigfoot. It doesn’t seem to matter than Bigfoot never shows up, and that after more than two decades of high-tech surveillance of the world’s creepiest places, no definitive evidence of ghosts has ever been found.
The illusionist and scientific skeptic James Randi wasn’t surprised.
For more than 30 years, Randi offered one million dollars to anyone in the world who could demonstrate, under controlled conditions agreed to in advance by all parties, a single shred of evidence of the paranormal or spirit world.
No one ever came close to claiming the money.
Why, then, is the fascination with ghosts, vampires, psychics, and monsters so persistent?
It seems clear that human beings cannot endure the idea that they are nothing but chemical algorithms.
Even as skeptics have tried to nail down the lid on the coffin of the supernatural once and for all, the hope that there is something mysterious out there always seems to escape. People yearn for the unexplained. And for meaning. If they can’t receive such gifts through traditional religion, they will gladly open themselves to the paranormal.
There’s another way to account for the popularity of a loosely held “Halloween theology” – as evidenced by the fact that October has now become known not simply for falling leaves and caramel applies, but for four consecutive weeks of creepy decorations and Hollywood horror flicks.
Believing in ghosts is a safe way to get a couple of metaphysical thrills.
And clinging to such convictions costs you nothing.
You don’t have to worry about injustice. Or reach out to the poor. Or confront your own dysfunctional behavior. Or take risks to change the world. All you have to do is shiver a little bit when you open that door to Grandma’s attic.
People in Bible times were also drawn to the paranormal. But the apostle Paul made it clear that followers of Jesus were to turn their backs forever on such dead ends:
“You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness” (I Thessalonians 5:5).
Do you want something that will genuinely satisfy your longing for meaning, plunge you into deep mystery, and may end up scaring you half to death?
Then risk your everyday life for a supernatural Savior.
This much is guaranteed: It will take your breath away.