WEEKEND investigates the existence of ghosts

While Christian teachings in large part focus on the intangible, Bob Keller, pastor at St. Paul's Catholic Center, describes the idea of Halloween ghosts as something altogether different from the spirits discussed in Catholic teaching. \nThe topic of ghosts wasn't one that was examined often during his theological studies, he said, and it is still one that in many aspects remains undecided in the seemingly all-encompassing Catholic Church. Even though spirits play a central role to that faith, he said a belief in ghosts is more central to religions where science plays a less central role. \n"It's not really our idea," Keller said. \nUnlike some other Christian denominations, Catholicism takes questions of science and philosophy more seriously, he said. \n"What are the phenomena they are trying to figure out?" Keller said. \nSimply, he described humans' belief in ghosts as part of their inability to explain naturally occurring events. \nAnd a colorful imagination never hurts. \nKeller said ghosts always come with stories: a murder, a tragic car accident, a stabbing. As a boy, Keller said his imagination could sometimes play tricks, causing him to question what he now sees as naturally occurring events.\n"I didn't need Harry Potter or something like that to create some creature," he said. \nLooking at cultures that tended to believe in ghosts, Keller said, there were often elaborate attempts conduct a "proper burial" in hopes of appeasing the dead. There's a sense of something unfinished or inexplicable, Keller said -- it's that question of religion versus natural science.