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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]But using our reason, we can find plenty of evidence that there is a Creator, a First Mover, evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. [b]And with that start[/b], we can reasonably progress to an understanding about His expectations for our conduct, which we have freedom to choose. [/quote]

And to think you were accusing one of the PPs of "begging the question"!

:D[/quote]

Phew!  Ok, we will back up to the beginning again.  Because yes, if we are going to talk about God's authority, we need to have God in the first place.  Natural law is meaningless apart from the lawgiver, Who is God.  Is there any evidence there is God?  The classic evidence:

#1  Argument from motion (physics)

What is in motion must be put into motion by another.  This cannot go on to infinity.  Therefore, at the beginning of the series of movers must be a being that is itself unmoved and the source of all movement.  This prime mover is God.

#2  Argument from causation

Every effect must have a cause.  This cannot go on to infinity.  Therefore, there must be a first cause that is not caused by anything else and that contains in itself the sufficient reason for its existence.  That first cause is God.

#3  Argument from necessity

If there was ever a time when there was nothing, there could never be anything.  From nothing, nothing can come.  There must have always existed, from all eternity without any beginning, a necessary being, from whom beings that began received their existence.  The necessary being is God.

#4  Argument from perfection

We judge things to be more or less beautiful, just, kind, etc.  This judgement presupposes an absolute standard of perfection with which the less perfect are compared.  The absolute standard of perfection is God.

#5  Argument from design

The order of the universe and the workings of creation give evidence of an intelligent designer.  The intelligent designer is God.

#6  Argument from contingency

If something exists, there must exist what it takes for that thing to exist.  The universe exists.  Therefore, there must exist what it takes for the universe to exist (space and time).  What it takes for the universe to exist cannot exist within the universe or be bounded by space and time.  Therefore, what it takes for the universe to exist must transcend both space and time.  What it takes for the universe to exist is God.

#7  The argument from consciousness (derivation of design)

We experience the universe as intelligible.  So the universe is graspable by intelligence.  Either the intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence, or both intelligibility and intelligence are the products of blind chance.  It cannot be blind chance.  Therefore this intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence.

#8  The argument from truth (Platonic forms)

Our limited minds can discover eternal truths about being.  Truth resides in a mind.  The human mind is not eternal.  Therefore there must exist an eternal mind in which these truths reside.

Then there is Descartes' argument from the origin of the idea of God, Anselm's ontological argument, argument from universal belief, argument from miracles, argument from religious experience...

#9  The argument from conscience

Even the subjectivist thinks he should follow his conscience.  Where does the conscience get such absolute authority?  From something less than me (natural instinct), from myself (who is not an absolute being), from others equal to me (society is not an absolute being), or from something above me (God)?  The only source of absolute moral obligation must be a superior being.  This is God.

OK, I have probably taken up an entire page.  But this is a start.  Yikes, there are other questions I need to go back to now!

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