Editorial July 6, 1992 Issue

Heredity and the ousting of ghosts

Nathan A. Talbot

Most people would probably argue they don't really believe in ghosts. But a good case could be made that many of them do. At least many of them certainly believe in being fascinated with these so-called spirits. Look back to the days of poltergeists. Or ask any Stephen King fan today. Movies, television themes, books, magazine stories—all provide a telling account of public interest in spooks. We may live in a scientific age, but scientific views sometimes seem more like little islands in a huge sea of worldly, superstitious beliefs.

Actually, more of us may hold a pretty solid belief in ghosts than we'd publicly be prepared to admit. But that's because the common perception of a ghost has to do with a white sheet covering some kind of eerie form floating around in a deserted house. That sort of silly belief just doesn't describe the ghosts that most people really do believe in.

A ghost is the lurking suspicion there is a shadowy type of presence that comes from someone who has died and now is back to haunt us. "The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly beliefs," insists Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. "It still holds them more or less." One of the most strongly promoted—and publicly accepted—of these shadowy beliefs is embedded in theories of heredity. In a very real sense, society has adopted a view of genetics that, bluntly stated, educates us to believe we are all inhabited by something from the past that has the power to haunt our lives today.

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