answering fools

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.  (Proverbs 26:4-5)

That’s the problem with talking to an idiot. If you answer him, you descend to his level. If you don’t, his stupidity goes unchallenged.

So what do you do? It seems that you cannot win either way.

When Jesus was faced with this problem, he did different things. At times, he would look at the people who said incredibly ignorant things and he would say, Have you not read? He made them look even dumber. Of course, they had read. They had triple doctorates in religion and theology. They knew a lot. So for this unschooled son of nobody to dare to ask them if they had read was more than they could handle.

The fact that he was right was even worse. Nothing is worse to an expert than to question his expertise, especially if he is wrong. It will infuriate him because it touches at the core of his self-image. It makes him sound like a new Bible student just come into Bible college. Guys with a lot of degrees hate to be shown up by someone with less schooling.

But what happens if you don’t answer him? When Jesus was faced with King Herod of Galilee, he said nothing the whole time, he just plain refused to answer. It made Herod so angry because he figured since he was a king and an Important Person, Jesus would be happy to show him whatever he needed to know. And when he did, it would be really interesting. Jesus would do some stuff and everybody would clap.

Instead, Jesus did nothing, said nothing, did no miracles. In fact, he just stood there. It infuriated Herod.

And then one time, when they asked him for his authority, he asked them a question about authority. When they wouldn’t answer, he said, too bad. He wasn’t going to answer them either.

So what do you do? answer or not.

If you answer, many times you get into an arguing match. It quickly devolves into stupidity and everyone looks dumb, including the smart people. But if you don’t answer, it sounds like you give tacit agreement with the fool. So people think you aren’t smart enough.

It is a situation where you are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

I have had like situations and sometimes both approaches worked. And sometimes they didn’t.

No one can give you a one-size-fits-all answer. Each time is different.

It is getting to be the political season and you hear a lot of fools arguing. And it gets old. The world would be better off without fools.