The history of Halloween is filled with the undead and their incorporeal issues.

With Halloween here, the question is simple: Do you believe in ghosts?

■ Mary Seeger Weese, Midway Presbyterian Church: The Holy Ghost. That's what we called the spirit of God for many, many years in the church. A ghost.

While it may not quite be like Casper or the Headless Horseman, there is definitely room to think about supernatural powers in our faith.

There are forces out there we just don't understand. Energies beyond our knowledge.

The popularity of shows like the Ghost Whisperer and people like John Edward point to our longing to touch those beyond death.

We want so much for ghosts to be real, and I think people have experienced them to be real.

But the bigger question, whether they are real or not, is should we be afraid? No.

Jesus has overcome every power, natural or supernatural that could hurt us. We've got the Holy Ghost, the holy power of God and no spirit in this world or the next can touch that.

■ Joe Lunceford, Georgetown College religion professor: I am a skeptic where ghosts are concerned.

I do not rule out the possibility of their existence, but I just have never seen one.

There is an interesting passage in the Bible about a medium calling up the spirit of Samuel so King Saul can talk with him. (1 Samuel 28).

In the light of this passage, we should perhaps be cautious about claiming ghosts do not exist.

It may be that departed human spirits can sometimes return to the earth in a recognizable form.

People have, for example, seen in dreams, and sometimes while awake, the spirits of departed loved ones.

I do not believe in the traditional Halloween version of ghosts but would want to leave room for the existence of spirits of some type.

■ Bob Evely, Grace Evangel Fellowship, Wilmore: I believe there are ghosts, but not in the sense that they are typically portrayed. There are spirit beings, some that are good, and which we commonly call angels. And some that are evil, which we typically call demons. Both were created by God as spirit beings.The Bible tells us that when we die, we "sleep" and we cease to have consciousness. We do not become ghosts but are in a dormant, sleeping state awaiting the resurrection.

I believe that paranormal apparitions are, for the most part, the work of evil spirits, except for those that are designed by trickery or an active imagination.

■ Roger Bruner, Mill Street Church of Christ, London: There were appearances or encounters with the dead that are recorded for us in the Bible.

To understand this subject properly and accurately, one absolutely must apply any and all language in accordance with God's eternal purpose as set forth in the Bible.

Bible prophecy and associated events that involved contact with the dead or angels occurred in accordance with God accomplishing this eternal purpose: our salvation.

Remember, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"

■ Cynthia Cain, Unitarian Universalist Church, Lexington and the Interfaith Alliance of the Bluegrass: Unitarian Universalists are famous for their scepticism.

Most would agree that freedom, reason and tolerance are the foundations of our denomination.

Over the centuries, reason has come to mean that anything that cannot be scientifically proven is suspect.

But I polled Unitarian Universalists among my Facebook friends, and over half indicated that they were open to or actually had experienced the presence of ghosts or spirits of some kind.

I agree most closely with the following answer to my impromptu survey: "Nope. But I'm willing to change my mind if I should ever experience a ghost. I find it all very interesting and love hearing people's stories and experiences. But the cynic in me won't let me go far enough to believe that ghosts actually exist."