If there is no deity, can there be ghosts? If there is no divine afterlife, does it follow that there are not being who have passed who are lingering between worlds?
Or are ghosts some sort of energy left behind and have nothing to do with a deity?
The one theory of ghosts that I am willing to consider as a possibility is that which was first advanced by the Victorian parapsychology pioneer Elliot O'Donald that some times buildings can absorb images and or sounds of traumatic events and play them back to other people who have a predisposition to receive them.
Since it has been proven by the invention of recording devices that this phenomena can be done using electrical impulses the idea that their may be a naturally occurring version is not totally illogical.
Nigel Kneale made this idea the basis of his extraordinary science fiction drama "The Stone Tapes" in 1972
Hi Len I have just sent you a message in three segments
Who knows? Deity is not required though regardless.