Tradicat

 + JMJ   Catholic Family News had an article titled Wicked Governors in this Valley of Tears by Brian McCall.  The article's introduction is below: Recent events have caused many people to ask questions that may be overlooked in times of more peaceful civil life. What is the Church’s teachings concerning the behavior, duties, and rights of Catholics who live in a country controlled by an evil governor? As with many areas of practical moral action, the short answer is that it depends on the types of evil plaguing a commonwealth. Defining Terms Before explaining the applicable moral principles, we must define several terms that are critical to distinguishing morally significant differences in situations. A country that is incorporated into Christendom is a nation whose ruler or rulers has or have submitted their political power to the reign of Christ the King. Although all rulers receive their authority from God, Christian rulers receive it proximately from the ...

 + JMJ    Smith made the following statement:: Simple. On Dec. 27, 2020, I took the official world COVID death numbers from worldometers.com , divided it by the world population of 7.8 billion, moved the resulting number's decimal point two places to the right to get a percentage and a total population mortality rate. That TPMR was 0.023%. In contrast, taking an average of the estimates that have been made for total deaths from Spanish flu, and dividing it by the estimated world population at that time, etc. you get a TPMR for Spanish flu of 2.33%  Smith and I have been exchanging emails about this stat and a few other things. First, what is the TPMR for the Spanish Flu and what does it mean? Total Population Mortality rate. I understand that there is some variation in the estimates of the population of the World in 1918. This is understandable on a number of levels. I've seen census notations from that era., so the USA had a working census system. So this is ...

 + JMJ ****** NOTA BENE ****** Smith just sent a lengthy reply to How Lethal is SARS-CoV-2.  In order to manage my time, I will post this draft of my reply to his earlier query. P^3  ****** ARTICLE ******  Smith replied to Update 1 by email and since it is a detailed and deep response, I felt (and they agreed) that it was better to post it on the blog.  This post has been long in the making ... apologies for the delay and any offense I may provide as I try to follow the threads. If I understood correctly, Smith believes that because of the small percentage of the population that have died from the disease, the restrictions (masks, social distancing etc) harm as opposed to help the common-good. I disagree as the TPMR does not reflect the lethality and therefore the anticipated impact a pathogen would have when given unfettered access to a population.   IFR and CFR (see below and the Lethality articles ) a better stats to estimate lethality and therefore...

 + JMJ  A reader by the handle of Smith offered a solution to the discussion between Murrax and myself (link). Here is his first claim ... The dispute between you and Murrax lies in the fact that your Decision Tree leaves out an ESSENTIAL element of St. Thomas' doctrine on true obedience.He defines Human Positive Law as "an ordinance of reason, for the common good, promulgated by a legitimate authority". (I-II Q.90, a4).You have completely left out the REASON part. I believe that he is correct, I missed this. However, I don't think it means what he thinks it means as he assumes that 'ordinance of reason' means a rational order. Which is why he makes the following assertion. St. Thomas very clearly teaches that, if an authority, even legitimate, gives an order that is obviously irrational , it is NOT A REAL LAW, and need not be obeyed. This is firstly because irrationality itself takes a command outside of the definition of law, and secondly because obeying irr...

 + JMJ  I have to apologise to Murrax for my earlier replies to his comments in the 'How many more must die ...' post.  I misunderstood his question and will now try to answer his question(s), but of course I am fallible and may misunderstand again.   I have just posted some preparatory work (link) that will inform my responses to Murra. My general thoughts, not specific to Murrax's questions but on the situation as a whole:   <Rant> Based on the reactions that I have seen in the media, I get the impression that North Americans have had it so soft, for so long (myself included), that they take are making a mountain out of a mole hill (myself not included).    There are far worse pathogens in the world and we have gotten off lucky that SARS-COV2 is dangerous enough to get people serious about preparing for a pandemic. The SARS-COV outbreak was more dangerous and more contagious, yet it was a 'blip' as far as people were concerned. That ...