Apologists need to know when to zip the lip

From the tiniest babe to the wisest scholar, nobody knows everything. Unfortunately, it is common practice to either act like we do, or act like we should. This is especially the case in apologetics. When an apologist encounters a question he can't answer, the temptation is to just make one up. It doesn't help that, quite often, the one asking the question will take "I don't know" as "you're 100% right, Christianity is false, so there is no answer".

But we should never underestimate the power of those 3 little words "I don't know". Accepting limits on your knowledge, first of all, prevents you from giving stupid answers that might come back to bite you later. But also, it presents you as not being the kind of fool who just makes stuff up. Acknowledging gaps in your knowledge may well cause actual fools to laugh, but it actually earns you respect from other wise people, even if they aren't wise with regard to God. Therefore, Scripture basically tells us that even an idiot looks smart when he shuts his gob. That's obviously my paraphrase, but the actual Scripture is in the header image for you to read and consider.