Apologetics Tactics handling the least competent who overrate their skill

There is something called the Dunning–Kruger effect.  It is when people of low ability inaccurately believe their ability is greater than it is.  Here’s a short TED animation video about it:

I think this phenomenon in which incompetent people think they are more knowledgeable than they really are explains the behavior of some such as the troll attacking our series refuting Bible contradictions which I responded to in “Mr. Hodge’s Dodge from Proving a Bible Contradiction.”  That particular individual would assert I need to learn Greek and Hebrew while he himself doesn’t know Greek and Hebrew and somehow he failed to see my posts regularly deal with the Greek and Hebrew when it is relevant.

Although it won’t be easy to deal with an incompetent person who think they are amazing yet what can a Christian apologist do in dealing with such individuals?  Here are six principles to keep in mind.

1. Be gentle and respectful.  Its my experience that such a person can take any attitude that is not respectful as a sign that your position is weak.  Don’t forget also that as Christians we must defend our faith in a manner that pleases the Lord in how we conduct ourselves as a witness to unbelievers.  True gentleness and respect with a “know-it-all” personality requires humility.  If you are not humble the other person will know it; now you are fueling their pride which makes that person less willing to see his shortcoming or wiling to admit it to you.  Plus you don’t want the discussion to become nothing more than a shouting match.
2. Inform them of the Dunning–Kruger effect.  Let them know that incompetent people sometimes think their abilities are more superior than they really are.  For example let’s say someone is talking about textual criticism and the Bible has been changed.  Yet they don’t know anything about the field of textual criticism and they are saying all kinds of stuff that’s unfounded.  Send them a link to Wikipedia about the Dunning–Kruger effect.  Or give them a link to the Youtube video to TED-ED.  Or send them the actual articles and studies on the Dunning–Kruger effect.  The intent of letting them know about the Dunning–Kruger effect is to let them know they can be wrong.
3. Ask them to prove what they are saying.  Point out any extreme confidence they have and asked what makes them think they really know this is the case.  In a scenario in which someone thinks they are superior than you, play on that by saying since they think they are that much intellectually superior than you you have decided to ask them more questions instead.
4. Ask them to provided sources for their claims.  This is similar to point three except the emphasis here is that you want to ask for some sort of reputable source for what their saying.  The intent of asking them for sources is to see if they are familiar with the literature of the field they are pontificating about and also to probe for both you and the person to know if they really have done their homework and research.
5. Be alert of exposing logical fallacies.  As a Christian one should learn well the laws of logic and clear thinking.  There are good books on logic out there both by Christians and non-Christians.  Pointing out logical fallacies committed during the conversation is a quick and direct way of questioning the person’s competence in their reasoning.  A few months ago I had some professor challenged me at our evangelism table who taught on a subject not related to the Bible, theology, philosophy or science but somehow he thought just because he was a professor he is smart and that must include fields outside of his specialization.  I look far younger than my age and sometimes that’s a liability since the guy kept saying he’s older and what does a young kid like me know about anything and he felt justified to cut me off and talk over me.  So eventually I let him have his desired monologue; until he gives enough rope to hang himself.  Then I point out the logical fallacies he’s committed in his reasoning.  Others walking by start listening in and some even started laughing.  As his monologue continues I keep on pointing out logical fallacies he’s committing.  I also make a point to keep on reminding him of the fallacies he’s committed earlier.  The intent here is to make it very clear how he’s incompetent in his argumentation in a specific area he’s thought of himself more informed and reasonable than he really is.
6. Pray for them.  There’s a spiritual dimension to all of this.  Go to God in prayer, for God to convict, reveal, regenerate, illuminate, help, etc.  Pray also for wisdom for yourself in handling the individual but also for you to know more about the subject of discussion.  We don’t want to be the very person we are dealing with: uniformed and yet having a greatly exaggerated sense of one’s knowledge and ability.