Just don't be a bull, don't gather troops, don't play proxies. Don't rally people against an idea, it's good to defend your own, but to let your dogs on someone on personal level is bad. It's same as booing down oliver kahn. I see linus is okay holding that viewpoint. To understand that just consider the most common question about God's existence, you would be in an infinite loop if you are set to arguing about it in a "nice" way. If someone is as crisp as linus he would respect that, he have to.