While in Georgia visiting our son in the Navy, we four (me, wife, son, son's girlfriendnowfiancee) made an overnight trip to Savannah. The old section truly is a beautiful city: Spanish moss, old buildings, streets laid out in squares, a waterfront along the river.

One thing I noticed was advertisements for "Ghost Tours" showing "Haunted Savanannah." We ran into one such tour while walking that night.

Such tours are not unique to Savannah. I've noticed such in other cities, and any bookstore can sell you print versions of regional ghost stories. Why the popularity? Here's a speculation. Modernity is ultimately dissatisfying to a human being. We need mystery, depth, connection to a larger universe than provided by the senses. Most folks, even moderns, have needs that basically are religious. If you don't participate in a religious community, who ya gonna call to have some sort of numinous experience? I'd like to know the background and belief-systems, and religious participation of those who take the tours, especially those who take more than one tour.

Decades ago Chesterton wrote in one of his Father Brown stories that the decline of Christianity was not being accompanied by a rise in strict atheism, but by a rise in superstition.