The Ignorance of False Teachers

But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — speak blasphemies about things they don't understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.... - 2 Peter 2:12

After he had pronounced God's righteous judgment upon false teachers, Peter (rather graphically) described them.

For example, one distinctive mark of a false teacher is arrogance. A false teacher will claim to have all the answers, avoid the use of an extant authority like the Bible, and often handle the Scriptures irresponsibly in order to support an errant doctrine. While they love to paint a picture of unbridled success, false teachers are instead like animals that are easily trapped and killed. They act on instinct (base desires) and insult/blaspheme the things of God that they do not understand.

False teachers are dangerous and must be confronted. Yet, in a way, they should also be pitied, because they will ultimately be destroyed by their own self-reliant ignorance.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King, Jr.