Authority Without Value Cannot Ground Objective Morality...
Morality is commonly understood as consisting of two components: value and authority. Value refers to the intrinsic goodness or badness of actions—what makes something right or wrong in itself—while authority refers to the power or right to command, enforce, or obligate behavior.
Authority is secondary within morality because it cannot function unless something is already valuable. Commands and obligations only make sense if there is a prior reason why obedience matters. Consider a hypothetical either–or. Make it strong by assuming that one must be literally forgotten. The dilemma is between value and authority. Value must take priority, since authority presupposes value rather than creates it. Without intrinsic moral value, authority is empty—capable of enforcing behavior but incapable of explaining why any action is genuinely right or wrong.
If morality consists of both value and authority, and value is the absolute essential component, then defining God purely as authority creates a serious problem for objective morality. Moral value refers to what makes actions genuinely good or bad in themselves, independent of commands or power. Authority, by contrast, concerns who has the right to issue commands or enforce rules. If value is foundational, then morality must be grounded in something intrinsically good, not merely in who gives orders.
When God is defined only as an authority—one who commands—moral obligations become dependent on will rather than truth. Actions would be “good” simply because they are commanded, not because they possess moral worth. This collapses objective morality into obedience, making morality contingent and potentially arbitrary. If commands alone create moral value, then different commands could redefine good and evil without contradiction.
For morality to be objective, moral truths must exist independently of authority. Authority may recognize, communicate, or enforce moral values, but it cannot create them if value is primary. Therefore, if God is understood solely as authority rather than as identical with moral value itself, He cannot be the source of objective morality. Objective morality must be grounded in value that exists prior to and independent of command.
Moral law can initially appear external—as a rule imposed from outside the self. The theistic tradition holds that God does not leave morality merely as an external command. By writing the moral law on the human heart, God internalizes what might otherwise seem imposed, grounding moral obligation within human reason and conscience. In this way, moral law is not experienced as alien or necessarily coercive but as something recognized inwardly as binding and intelligible. This unites moral law with natural law: the same rational structure that orders the world also orders human moral understanding. What is commanded externally corresponds to what is discerned internally, allowing obedience to flow from recognition of value rather than mere submission to authority.
That doctrine collapses if value is ignored in favor of divine authority alone. If moral goodness depends solely on God’s commands rather than on intrinsic value, then writing the law on our hearts loses its meaning: it no longer guides us toward what is truly right, but merely trains us to obey. The internalization of morality presupposes that actions have value independent of authority; without this, morality becomes arbitrary, and the supposed harmony between moral law and natural law is reduced to empty compliance rather than genuine moral insight.