We don't engage in intellectual disputes with skeptics just…

We don't engage in intellectual disputes with skeptics just to score points or win arguments. Most of the time, the objections thrown at God and His Word are lightweight smoke screens, which are intellectual bait designed to distract from personal accountability.
But there is an arrogance and a lack of compassion in the argument that we should never lower ourselves to engage. It is entirely possible that people are simply tangled up in the deceitfulness of their own intellect, which is large enough to create a maze but not sharp enough to unravel the truth. Sometimes the very reason they are debating is because they want someone to call them out on their foolishness. They want to know if it is possible for something to be truer and stronger than their own arguments.
A "prove me wrong" attitude is not always a terminal state of petty debate. There are those who are trapped in their own cleverness while thinking it is wisdom, yet they remain intellectually honest enough to eventually realize that they have not been fighting against another human being. They come to realize they are standing against an intellect and a power that is far beyond them.
Scripture shows us that this engagement always forces a decision. For some, it will take God showing up in His glory directly in their path, like Paul, because their zeal is as strong as their delusion, but they still have enough humility to surrender to a higher power once they realize that is what they have been fighting against.
For others, even that would not be enough. This is demonstrated in Revelation when a holy God is bringing wrath against the earth, and the men of the earth recognize it, and instead of repenting and surrendering, they shake their fists at heaven and curse the God of eternity.
Some will choose to stone the messenger, just as they did with Stephen, whose wisdom they could not withstand. They could not withstand it because the person speaking was simply a vessel carrying the truth and the words of God. But other people, even those who are extremely stubborn, will lay down their sword and surrender to God once they have at long last come to the end of themselves.
It is not incumbent on us to do the whole job, and it would be foolish to think we are capable of saving anyone on our own. But it is certainly not foolish, it is deeply compassionate, to engage. We do this by tapping into the power and presence of God that indwells us and leads us into all truth, using that light to help them escape the tangled web of lies they have built around their own hearts.
Through the suppression of truth, intellectual pride, and constant misdirection, people use a comparatively puny human intellect to try to outmaneuver the wisdom, majesty, and mystery of an eternal, all-powerful, and holy God. They aren't winning the debate, but they are actively fighting against their own rescue, and our compassionate prayer is that they finally hit the wall of His truth, stop fighting, and surrender to that rescue.