Also, I hate that black and white photoshopped picture, lol.

Moving on, I think I can maybe type up a much closer argument to your original goal (if I am to assume your goal was to have a Judeo-Christian viewpoint). Of course, if your goal is to show that Ghostbusters has no religious purpose, then you’re right on the money and don’t need to spend lots of time “overthinking it” like I do below. Hey, it’s true! I did overthink it.

Although the script writers don’t like to mention it, obviously at least some of the ghosts that the Ghostbusters bust are human, Slimer being questionable, and the Terror Dogs and Gozer (which includes Staypuft), for example, definitely being inhuman extradimensional beings. As far as humans go, the Ghostbusters are only seen busting the two ghost brothers in GB2, the jogger, and I suppose sending Vigo back inside the painting to sit it out for another 1000 years or something. Slimer has been stated in several sources, including the GB International RP game and the just recently released Video Game, to be nothing more than either a never-living-before visitor from the Ghost World (titled “The Abyss”) or the result of Occult rituals accidentally triggering wandering ectoplasmic particles to gain cohension and form into a semi-intelligent being – a ghost, but never having lived. The Ghostbusters Video Game also presents Slimer as possibly being one of the physical representations of the Seven Deadly Sins – obviously, Slimer is Gluttony.

The first problem with this conflicting with Judeo-Christian beliefs is that according to the Judeo-Christian Scriptures (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:6) souls or spirits are not allowed to wander after death. They are taken straight up to judgment. So this creates a problem of Ghostbusters being already incompatible with Biblical Judeo-Christianity (as opposed to differing beliefs among alternate sects and denominations or other religions claiming Christ or Abraham such as Islam; I won’t touch up on those either). Or is it? Actually, there is allowance in those verses for some sort of period between death and being with the Lord at the Judgment. Most Christians I know, however, would never allow for such space in their own personal beliefs. This doesn’t mean they’re right and it must also be considered that the Bible has exceptions – for example, the Hebrews verse states that humans only die once, but the Bible states several times before this stories that have humans dying and being brought back to life. These people were not given immortality and it stands to reason that they will die twice. Therefore the NORMAL plan is that humans will die once. This gives room for other exceptions within Scripture.

On the Gozerian problem: The first of the 10 commandments states that there are other gods, at least in a sense that others believe there are. Exodus 12:12 has YHWH passing judgment on other gods: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night…and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” The Biblical Plagues of Egypt each correlated to a specific god so this seems to be more of YHWH mocking the religious beliefs of the Egyptians, if not judging actual gods. There are many verses claiming YHWH to be the ruler of all of the gods: Psalm 86:8, Psalm 95:3. There’s even a verse that commands the other gods to worship YHWH: Psalm 97:7. The rest of the Bible is very clear that there are no other “actual gods” other than YHWH. However there are verses that suggest that demons are mistaken by humans as being gods: Deuteronomy 32:17, 1 Corinthians 10:20, etc.

It is because of this last set of verses, and others like it, that it is entirely possible that Gozer is not literally a god but is instead a demon or at any rate some sort of created supernatural spirit being that rebelled against YHWH, its creator. The Bible mentions Cherubim, Seraphim, and other angelic beings. Some of them varied in wing and eye count and all were originally good but some chose to rebel and become evil. The Bible also mentions strange supernatural creatures with mismatched animal parts (Revelation 4:6-8) – it was probably the only way the human observers could relate to others as to what they saw. These were definitely not humanoid spirit creatures. Other Old and New Testament passages claim that angels, perhaps evil angels also, have the ability to shape-shift and pass themselves off as human in order to live or walk among us. I present this as to why Gozer was a female humanoid as well as addressing ghosts and monsters that are not humanoid. It is entirely possible that there are other spirit creatures in existence that are not mentioned within the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.

The Bible also mentions far more dimensional plains than just Heaven and Hell – it also mentions Paradise (possibly an Old Testament word for Heaven), the Bottomless Pit, the Abyss, and the Lake of Fire (separate from Hell). In Luke 8:31 demons plead to Jesus that He will not send them to the Abyss. Romans 10:7 also references the Abyss. It is possible that this is another name for Hell but it is unclear. In Revelations 9:1-12 the Bottomless Pit is said to be a holding place for evil angels – demons – which will be released unto this plain during the Tribulation period, otherwise known as the End of the World [as we know it]. This may also be another name for Hell but it is yet again not stated as such. But the Judeo-Christian Scriptures explicitly state in Revelation 20:14 that Hell (Hades) and The Lake of Fire are two separate dimensions or plains of existence. It is entirely possible that there are other dimensional plains inhabited by creatures such as Gozer, or perhaps plains created or otherwise used to imprison highly powerful spirit creatures with malevolent such desires. Gozer could not come into the human world of his (or her) own accord in the movie but had to have that door opened for him from the other side – in this case, ours.

But, I digress. Most Christians, and probably Jewish although I am not one and cannot claim I know their beliefs, will most likely tell you that Ghostbusters can in no way agree with the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. However, if you don’t read differently between the lines from what traditional Christians believe, it is almost entirely possible. But obviously the conclusion is that Ghostbusters is merely fiction so it in no way matters.

As an ending note, the Bible even claims that men are gods in one sense or another in Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34: “I said, ‘You are gods.’” I suppose Zeddemore was right to tell Ray to say, “Yes!”