A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion/nonreligion over other religions/nonreligion. Secular states do not have a state religion or equivalent, although the absence of a state religion does not guarantee that a state is secular. In addition, secular states are not necessarily communist nations enforcing state atheism on the population by way of religious censorship and persecution.

Secular states become secular either upon establishment of the state (e.g. United States of America or India) or upon secularization of the state (e.g. France or Nepal). Movements for laïcité in France and for the separation of church and state in the United States defined modern concepts of secularism. Historically, the process of secularising states typically involves granting religious freedom, disestablishing state religions, stopping public funds to be used for a religion, freeing the legal system from religious control, freeing up the education system, tolerating citizens who change religion or abstain from religion, and allowing political leadership to come to power regardless of religious beliefs.

Leslie Cannold, PhD, (born 1 April 1965 in Port Chester, NY) is an author, academic ethicist, columnist, activist, and high-profile Australian public intellectual.

Born and raised in Armonk and Scarsdale, New York, Leslie migrated to Melbourne, Australia in her early twenties.^{[citation needed]} She began writing for The Age as an opinion and education section columnist while raising young children and completing her graduate degrees. She is considered a protege of one of the most influential modern philosophers, Peter Singer, though she does not share his utilitarian views.^{[citation needed]} A twice-published non-fiction author and novelist, Cannold is a familiar voice and face on radio and TV in Australia, discussing ethics, politics, and reproductive rights. In 2005 she was named one of Australia's top twenty public intellectuals by The Age newspaper. In 2011 Cannold was awarded Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.

Educated at Wesleyan University where she studied psychology and theatre, Leslie completed a Masters degree in Bioethics at Monash University and worked at the Centre for Human Bioethics during Peter Singer's tenure there.^{[citation needed]} She earned her PhD in Education at the University of Melbourne before commencing employment at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics when C.A.J. Coady was director. As of 2011^[update] she maintains adjunct positions at both universities though she left academic employment in 2006 to pursue writing full-time.^{[citation needed]}

Michael Nugent (born 1 June 1961) is an Irish writer and activist. He has written three books, co-written two and was one of the three writers of comedy musical play I, Keano. He has campaigned on many political issues, often with his late wife Anne Holliday, and he is chairperson of the advocacy group Atheist Ireland. He argues that atheism provides a better model of reality, and a better basis for morality, than believing in gods; that atheists can enjoy the benefits that many people get from religion, without the harmful effects; and that the state should be secular, promoting neither religion nor atheism. He writes a blog about happiness and atheism, and he supports Bohemians and Leeds United football clubs.

Nugent was completing a project on the Gospels in primary school when he started to question the “comic book” nature of the Bible. He attended St. Aidan's C.B.S. secondary school in Whitehall in Dublin. He graduated in visual communications in 1983 at the College of Marketing and Design, now part of the Dublin Institute of Technology. He has since addressed graduate events at both institutions. In 1983, he was elected president of the college students' union and students' representative on the Dublin City Council Vocational Education Committee. In 1984, he was defeated when he ran for the post of education officer in the Union of Students in Ireland, in opposition to Joe Duffy, then USI president, who is now a broadcaster with RTE. He then took a course in product development, and set up as a freelance designer.

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”

The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.

Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"