= Hero	= Villain	= Deity
= Supporting Character		= Clergy
= Based on Real Person		= Scientist
= Real     Person	= Non-Superhero        Lead Character

Newest character in database (18 May 2013):
Wooden Soldiers - N.A.

Most recently updated (18 May 2013):
Little Mouse - N.A.

Number of characters in this sub-list: 12 (out of a total of 30,042 in the database).

The label "manifestly non-religious" is used as something of a "last resort." This database is dedicated to cataloguing the actual religious affiliation of characters. If story details allow a character to be identified as a Catholic or Jew or Atheist or Buddhist, etc., then the character will be identified in the appropriate category, regardless of their behavior. But some characters (particularly minor ones) are not written with sufficient identifying detail to make any determination regarding their religious upbringing, affiliation, beliefs, etc. Yet enough is known about the character to classify them as "manifestly non-religious." In other words, the character has manifest through their behavior that they are non-religious.

"Manifestly non-religious" has a specific meaning. It is not equivalent to "atheist" or "agnostic" or any other secular philosophical position. A character that has actually identified with a specific secular philosophy or non-theistic religious category will be identified with that philosophy or category. There is nothing implied or "manifest" about such a categorization. It is overtly stated. Furthermore, characters who identify themselves as "non-religious" are not categorized as "manifestly non-religious." Their "non-religious" status is self-identified, not "manifest", so they have their own category.

By definition, "manifestly non-religious" characters have not made statements about their beliefs regarding theological and religious questions. Their positions on quesions such as the existence of God, an afterlife, humanism, prophecy, repentance, Dharma, altruism, reincarnation, etc. are unknown. If their beliefs on such subjects were known, they could be categorized accordingly.

Manifestly non-religious characters are categorized as such because they behave in a non-religious manner. Nothing is observed in their speech, thoughts or action that can be identified as "religious."

The word "religion" in this context means behavior which is not biologically driven or which stems from non-universal beliefs which are not mathematically replicable. This definition may seem unwieldly, but it is essentially a technical, legally defensible and scientifically manageable encapsulation of more common definitions of "religion." Common complimentary definitions of religion come from Webster's Dictionary ("a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith"), ReligiousTolerance.org ("any specific system of belief about deity... a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, and a worldview"), Huston Smith (the act of becoming human) and James 1:27 (the only verse in the Bible where "religion" is defined: "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world").

Manifestly non-religious characters behave contrary to the broadest, most inclusive definitions of religion.