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The growth of the “non-religious” population in Mexico has been interpreted as evidence of secularization. However, the substantive meaning of such claims becomes blurred amid divergent narratives of religious decline, persistence, or reconfiguration. This article argues that the non-religious serve as a heuristic site for clarifying confusions around secularization and secularism. Adopting a perspective that moves beyond essentialist views of religion and anemic approaches to the secular, I analyze this population using descriptive and multivariate techniques applied to Mexican census data and three surveys on religion and secularity. By identifying both affirmative and negative elements in their belief systems, this study refines certain secularization theses and uncovers the agents behind processes often treated in abstract and impersonal terms.