Most businesses and corporations and some governments are secular organizations. All of the state universities in the United States are secular organizations (especially because of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution) while some private universities are connected with the Christian or Jewish religions. Among many of these seven prominent examples are: Baylor University Brigham Young University Boston College Emory University the University of Notre Dame Duquesne University Southern Methodist University and Yeshiva College.

The public university systems of the United Kingdom Australia New Zealand Canada and Japan are also secular although some government-funded primary and secondary schools may be religiously aligned in some countries. Contents 1 Etymology 2 Modern usage 3 Related concepts 4 See also 5 Notes 6 External links Etymology Look up secular in Wiktionary the free dictionary.

Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saecularis meaning of a generation belonging to an age. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones. This meaning has been extended to mean separation from any religion regardless of whether it has a similar doctrine.

This does not necessarily imply hostility to God or religion though some use the term this way (see "secularism" below); Martin Luther used to speak of "secular work" as a vocation from God for most Christians.citation needed Modern usage

Examples of secular used in this way include: Secular authority which involves legal police and military authority as distinct from clerical authority or matters under church control. Secular clergy in the Roman Catholic Church who traditionally do not live the monastic lives of the regular clergy and are therefore in a sense more engaged with the temporal world. For a related Roman Catholic reference see secular institute. Secular education schools that are not run by churches synagogues or other religious organizations. Secular states with secular governments that follow civil lawsas distinct from religious authorities like the Islamic Sharia Catholic Canon law or Jewish Halakhaand that do not favor or disfavor any particular religion. Secular Jewish culture cultural manifestations of Jewishness that are not specifically religious. Secular music composed for general use as distinct from sacred music which is composed for church use. Secular sonatas in the 17th century were those not composed for church services. Secular Organizations for Sobriety a secular alternative to the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) organization which is a loosely religious one although nondenominational. Secular society refers to aspects of society that are not mosque- church- synagogue- or temple-affiliated. Secular spirituality the pursuit of spirituality without a formal affiliation with a church or other religious organization or the pursuit of spirituality specifically in the context of temporal affairs. Secular peers in reference to the Peers of the House of Lords that are not connected to the Church. Related concepts Lacit is a French concept related to the separation of state and religion sometimes rendered by the English cognate neologism laicity and also translated by the words secularity and secularization. The word lacit is sometimes characterized as having no exact English equivalent; it is similar to the more moderate definition of secularism but is not as ambiguous as that word. Secularism is an assertion or belief that religious issues should not be the basis of politics and it is a movement that promotes those ideas (or an ideology) which hold that religion has no place in public life. Secularist organizations are distinguished from merely secular ones by their political advocacy of such positions. Lacisme is the French word that most resembles secularism especially in the latter's extreme definition as it is understood by the Catholic Church which sets lacisme in opposition to the allegedly far milder concept of lacit. The correspondent word laicism (also spelled lacism) is sometimes used in English as a synonym for secularism. See also Separation of church and state List of state-established religions Anti-clericalism Secularism Islam and secularism Secular Student Alliance Notes The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition. "Secularity". ("1. The condition or quality of being secular. 2. Something secular.") External links Conference: Secularity and Religious Vitality Iain Benson:"Notes Towards a (Re)Definition of the 'Secular'" University of British Columbia Law Review Vol. 33 p. 520 2000 Research Project: Multiple Secularities