What is the part of the speech of “But” in this sentence?

Question

“These commands are binding on all children; they cannot be neglected without sin. Whatever God has commanded us to do, we must perform, without calling in question the propriety of the command.

But the reasonableness of this command to obey parents is clear and easily understood by children, even when quite young.”

(The word “But” is a start of the new paragraph and sentence according to the sentence above. “Reasonableness” is a noun, so should it be preposition or conjunction? Because “but” could be preposition or conjunction...For me, I think it is a preposition...I’m not sure🤔)

Answer 1

Looks like a conjunction. You are contrasting different ideas.

When "but" is used as a preposition, you get something like "everyone but Chris likes to go to the movies"

Answer 2

Hi Carmilla,

I can help you with that! The word 'but' is a coordinating conjunction in this case. A coordinating conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses having similar grammatical structure. In your passage the similar grammatical structure focuses on the commands given.