In Psalm 14:1 we read, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” That’s a pretty blunt accusation - that a person who says there is no God, is a fool. Our modern overly-sensitive ears are startled when language like this is used. However, when the Bible speaks of “fools” and “foolishness” it isn’t engaging in adolescent name calling. Instead, the word “fool” is used to describe a person who is in a state of moral and intellectual dullness. Greg Bahnsen cuts to the heart of the biblical teaching regarding fools and foolishness. He writes:
"If we are to understand how to answer the fool, if we are to be able to demonstrate that God has made the pseudo-wisdom of the world foolish, then we must first study the biblical conception of the fool and his foolishness. In scriptural perspective the fool is not basically a shallow-minded or illiterate ignoramus; he can be quite educated and sophisticated in social reckoning. However, he is a fool because he has forsaken the source of true wisdom in God in order to rely on his own (allegedly), self-sufficient, intellectual powers. He is unteachable (Prov. 10:8) and despises instruction (Prov. 15:5); whereas the wise man heeds council given to him, ‘The way of a fool is right in his own eyes’ (Prov. 12:15). The fool has utter self-confidence and imagines himself to be intellectually autonomous. ‘He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool’ (Prov. 28:26). A fool cannot think of himself as mistaken (Prov. 17:10). He judges matters according to his own pre-established standards of truth and right, and thus his own thoughts always turn out in the long run to be correct. The fool is sure that he can rely on his own rational authority and intellectual scrutiny. ‘The fool beareth himself insolently and is confident’ (Prov. 14:16), and therefore he utters his own mind (Prov. 29:11). In actuality, this autonomous man is dull, stubborn, boorish, obstinate and stupid. He professes himself to be wise, but from the opening of his mouth it is clear that he is (in the biblical sense) ‘a fool’ - his only wisdom would consist in keeping silent (Prov. 17:28). ‘The heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness’ (Prov. 12:23), and the fool flaunts his folly (Prov. 13:16). He eats up folly unreflectingly (Prov. 15:14), pours it out (Prov. 15:2), and returns to it like a dog to his vomit (Prov. 26:11). He is so in love with his folly and so dedicated to its preservation that ‘It is better for a man to meet a bear robbed of her whelps, than a fool is his folly’ (Prov. 17:12). The fool does not want to find the truth; he only wants to be self-justified in his own imaginations. While he may feign objectivity, ‘A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may reveal itself’ (Prov. 18:2). He is committed to his own presuppositions and wishes to guard his autonomy. Thus he will not depart from evil (Prov. 13:19), and thus all his knowledgeable talk reveals nothing but perverse and lying lips (Prov. 10:18; 19:1). He may talk proudly, but “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are a snare of his soul’ (Prov. 18:7). He shall not endure the judgment of God (Ps. 5:5).” (Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready, pp. 55-56)
Having briefly examined the Bible’s use of the word “fool,” we might ask, “So, why bother responding to a fool at all?” Well, the Bible actually tells us to expose and cast down (or destroy) the foolishness of the world and its foolish arguments. However, there is a razor’s edge Christians must walk in relation to this task. Proverbs 26:4 says,
“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.”
This means that we are not to engage in the same type of argumentation as the fool. That is, we are not argue from the presupposition that we are autonomous creatures. Bahnsen comments,
What the world calls ‘foolish’ is in reality wisdom. Conversely, what the world deems ‘wise’ in actually foolish. The unbeliever has his standards all turned around, and thus he mocks the Christian faith or views it as intellectually dishonorable. (Bahnsen, p. 59)
The point is, we cannot pretend to have some sort of objective neutrality and autonomy when it comes to forming a worldview or responding to someone else’s. The Apostle Paul says that unbelievers actually know the truth about God, but they suppress that truth in unrighteousness. That is, they know the Christian God, but because they do not want to submit to him, they run from him and suppress their knowledge of him. Thus, the Christian should not argue from the vantage point of human autonomy - intellectual or moral.
However, Proverbs 26:5 (the very next verse) says,
“Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”
One might read this verse and assume that Scripture is contradicting itself. However, what this verse is saying is that sometimes it is necessary to expose a fool’s foolishness by doing an internal critique of his system, thereby showing him that his argument is built upon sand.
I cannot summarize this two-fold apologetic procedure any better than Greg Bahnsen. He writes,
In the first place, the unbeliever should not be answered in terms of his own misguided presuppositions; the apologist should defend his faith by working within his own presuppositions. …But then in the second place the apologist should answer the fool according to his self-proclaimed presuppositions (i.e., according to his folly). In so doing he aims to show the unbeliever the outcome of those assumptions. Pursued to their consistent end presuppositions of unbelief render man’s reasoning vacuous and his experience unintelligible; in short, they lead to the destruction of knowledge, the dead-end of epistemological futility, to utter foolishness. (Bahnsen 61-62)