For months now I have encountered post after post where by people equate "secular" with "atheist." This is an all too common occurrence and needs some clarification.

Secular:
sec·u·lar
ˈsekyələr/Submit
adjective
1.
denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.
"secular buildings"
synonyms: nonreligious, areligious, lay, temporal, worldly, earthly, profane; formallaic
"secular music"
2.
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
(of clergy) not subject to or bound by religious rule; not belonging to or living in a monastic or other order.
noun
1.
a secular priest.

Atheist:
a·the·ist
ˈāTHēəst/
noun
a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.
"he is a committed atheist"
synonyms: nonbeliever, disbeliever, unbeliever, skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, agnostic; nihilist
"why is it often assumed that a man of science is probably an atheist?"

For the most part the two terms cannot and should not be interchanged. You can be a theist and act secular. Ergo many christians live work and play in the secular society which is the United States of America.
Secular means not having any religious authority over activity such as governing, teaching, etc...! A soccer game is secular as it is an event that has no religious significance even though the teams playing may be from a religious club. That does not mean that the soccer game is in any way shape or form an atheist event.
I strongly make this point because as an American my civil rights are continuously assaulted by theist that confuse (purposefully) that secular and atheist are synonymous. Theist belief if anything or anyone isn't christian that they or it is atheist. They also believe that atheist is synonymous to the devil.
So please make the clear distinction between secular and atheist. They are not synonyms by any stretch of the imagination. They are not antonyms, AND they are not synonyms!