Chief Deficiency

The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them -- the sense that we have a monopoly on the truth; that those other people who believe in all these stupid doctrines are morons; that if you're sensible, you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you.  This is nonconstructive.  It does not get our message across.  It condemns us to permanent minority status.

-- Carl Sagan, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996), p. 300