"But I would really like to talk about the "elephant in the room" - whatever it is that we profoundly disagree about."

This is the most pertinent point in the entire thread (in fact ion all these threads) and deserves further consideration. Funnily enough, I was thinking about this very issue on the train on the way home yesterday morning, so it's great it's been raised.

The answer to this isn't as simple as it first appears.