Good Morning,
I took Latin as my foreign language in High School. My counselors cajoled me that in order to be the architect for which I aspired, Latin was the language I needed to have. Maybe that was true fifty years ago, but I now am pretty sure I would have been better served taking Spanish. At least I would be able to converse with workers on the job site. It’s a little difficult to do that in Latin. Besides, since it is what is called a “dead language” (well except maybe for the Catholic Church) no one speaks it. So because of that, most of what I learned has since dissolved into that esoteric world of “synapses past”.
A friend of mine posted a comment in Latin on Facebook… “Etsi Deus non daretur”. Well curiosity then prevailed, as it seems to when I run into something strange and I had to look it up. I found that the most common of several translations in English was “as if God did not exist”. That seemed like a pretty interesting statement, which then required even more investigation. I ask and found out that my friend posted the comment after having been plummeted by a couple of people from the “religious right”. I suspect that it was probably at her doorstep. Now I know my friend well enough that the last thing you want to do is push your religion on her.
A little deeper… apparently the first recorded use of the comment was by a famous Dutch lawyer Hugo Grotius. It is from the key concept by which God was removed from natural law; which in turn then became “autonomous”. Once autonomous and subject only to our own consciousness, we could fashion it as we pleased in principle. From then forward ominously, we had “natural rights” which were not based in anything but human will.
Well as you can imagine, organized religion didn’t like that too much! What happens is 
organized religions will link human rights with a particular understanding of God, and then “absolutist view” of them ultimately takes hold. Those who say they have the monopoly on the Truth will want to impose their understanding of such truth on everyone. I believe that God gave us “free will” and anything that takes that away cannot be good. I have a problem with a “few” deciding what the “majority” needs to believe. Actually if you look back in history, it has been the cause of most of our strife as humans. For instance we are still paying for the crusades today, just ask Osama bin Ladin.
Our founding father decreed “In God We Trust” and not specifically in Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any of a thousand other religions out there that see God as a supreme being. After all this country was supposed to be free from religious persecution. Separation of church and state is a constant battle, as it seems there will always be those who want to impose their perceived morals on our government and the rest of us.
I think my friend was right with her belief and has the freedom to express it as she chooses, while not imposing it on others.
dum spiro, spero
Love, Dad
Excerpts used from these sites: Paswonky ; Ignatius Insight
Latin Textbook image from: Writing Gooder along with the quote: “dum spiro, spero”
The image of Hugo Grotius is all over the web so I have little idea where it originated from.
The “Christian Monopoly” man: Well I did that one and probably will be hearing from Parker Brothers.