I saw the below quote on the internet, someone's comment to other people's comments on some story or other

"Heated debates on the internet are like the Paralympics: even if you win, you are still retarded."

my comments:

blunt, but often true nonetheless: (He that hath ears to hear, let him hear...)

Some truth is in there for us all.

IF anyone engages in a debate in a public forum, first of all and foremost, he should remember he represents Christ (and if a Christian does not represent Christ, then he is renegade and functions as antichrist and has a fool for a client).

Scripture says:

Answer NOT a fool according to his folly lest you become like him

but also

ANSWER a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes.

How can we tell which to apply...?

Both.

Answer not a fool in the same manner, becoming like him, arguing about things that cannot be proven as if you are omniscient and "KNOW" things that cannot possibly be known. Most everything we think we know and can "prove" we cannot; we have evidence; anyone who thinks differently is still in the mere infancy of intelligence.

Most ALL science is built on assumptions. Contrary to what most people think, Science is not "hard" (ie, static, fixed) and there very few true scientific laws. Aristotelian science succumbed to Galileon, which passed to Newtonian, which passed to so called Einsteinian, which itself is being replaced. What people consider scientific law is not law, it is a temporary approximation, a working model, but not Law.

[See Gordon Clark's excellent, brief book, The Philosophy of Science and Belief in God (inquire).

The entire house of cards of evolution is based on bad science and bad religion and falsehood, dazzling the average person with a lot of "information" passed off as truth.

Answer a fool according to his folly if it seems he is open to considering anything that is other than the way he wants things to be... answer a fool according to his folly (not being foolish yourself, but being wise, mature, respectful, logical, representing Christ) for the sake of others who are on the sidelines, and remember that HOW you say something and your deportment and testimony is often just as powerful, if not more so, than what you actually say.

Answer not a fool according to his folly if he mind is as permanently shut tighter than Fort Knox (and equally devoid of any value) because for you to be able to force an intelligent thought into his mind would be just as vain as trying to push a grape through an anvil.

Answer not a fool according to his folly, if your motivation is to prove yourself right.

A few words of truth may eventually germinate and take root (bathed in prayer and trusting in the Agency of the Holy Spirit); but debate with a fool is like struggling in quicksand. Speak your peace to honor God, gracefully bow out and extricate yourself; spinning your tires will only entrench you deeper and cause you to wallow in the mire with him, and will poorly reflect Christ.

I Corinthians 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Colossians 4:6: "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."

Titus 27,8: "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you."

Ephesians 4: "29Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you."

I Corinthians 8:2: "And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."

Proverbs 12:15: "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes..."

II Timothy 2: "24And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."

Colossians 1: "18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard..."

Ecclesiastes 12:14: "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."