A secular icon is an image or pictograph of a person or thing used for other than religious purpose. (See icon for such use.)

International standards have been developed to harmonize icons and symbols. The latter can be seen particularly at international airports and on roadside signs, to assist travelers. Icons are also becoming standardised for consumer electronics and for automobile controls.

Warning symbols, such as the biological-hazard, or biohazard, symbol, are sometimes not self-explanatory but are well-known within the relevant art or craft; they are not icons, but symbols.

Secular icons are seen particularly in editorial cartoons, where a simple image can be used to represent a complex concept or entity. These are often cultural specific, as recognition of some symbols may depend upon a deep understanding of the current local situation and the players involved, while others are so common that they are understood over a wide range of cultures (but not worldwide). Edifices such as the United States Capitol Building or the White House, the Tower of Westminster, and Saint Basil's Cathedral have become representations respectively of the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Other symbols (such as the bulldog for the United Kingdom, the bald eagle for the United States, the bear for Russia, or the Chinese dragon for China) are used to represent nations, as distinct from (yet inclusive of) governments.

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.

Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism.^{[clarification needed]} In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.

Widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.

Matt Dillahunty is the president of the Atheist Community of Austin, the host of the live internet radio show "Non-Prophets Radio" and of the Austin Public-access television cable TV show The Atheist Experience. He is also the founder and contributor of the counter-apologetics encyclopedia Iron Chariots and its subsidiary sites.

Matt was raised as a Baptist Christian and sought to become a Baptist minister. His religious studies, instead of bolstering his faith as he intended, led to a rejection of Christianity and, eventually, all religions.

The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Sino-Mongolian word далай (dalai) meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word བླ་མ་ bla-ma (with a silent "b") meaning "chief, high priest".

In religious terms, the Dalai Lama is believed by his devotees to be the rebirth of a long line of tulkus who are considered to be manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara. Traditionally, the Dalai Lama is thought of as the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who have chosen to be reborn in order to enlighten others. The Dalai Lama is often thought to be the leader of the Gelug School, but this position belongs officially to the Ganden Tripa, which is a temporary position appointed by the Dalai Lama who, in practice, exerts much influence. The line of Dalai Lamas began as a lineage of spiritual teachers; the 5th Dalai Lama assumed political authority over Tibet.

For certain periods between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lamas sometimes directed the Tibetan government, which administered portions of Tibet from Lhasa. The 14th Dalai Lama remained the head of state for the Central Tibetan Administration ("Tibetan government in exile") until his retirement on March 14, 2011. He has indicated that the institution of the Dalai Lama may be abolished in the future, and also that the next Dalai Lama may be found outside Tibet and may be female. The Chinese government was very quick to reject this and claimed that only it has the authority to select the next Dalai Lama.

Annie Laurie Gaylor (born in Tomah, Wisconsin on 2 November 1955) is co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and, with her husband Dan Barker, is the current co-president. She is also editor of the organization's newspaper, Freethought Today, which is published ten times per year. She is a self-described feminist and liberal. She is the author of several books, including Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So, Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children, and Women Without Superstition: "No Gods — No Masters." She is a 1980 graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism.

Gaylor and her mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, and the late John Sontarck, founded the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a meeting around the Gaylors' dining room table in 1978. She met Barker at The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1984. They began dating six months later and married in 1987. They have a daughter, Sabrina Delata.

Gaylor co-hosts a one hour weekly radio show with Barker. Freethought Radio was launched on October 6, 2007, on Air America.