while it is always a good thing to examine something before commenting on it, i am willing to wager that every person on this list has dismissed or criticized ideas/people without necessary reading their works.
i have no qualms in saying that i do not plan to waste time on reading the works of 'joe shmoe', the eminent creationist biologist. it would be wrong of me to call him an idiot (simply because he is a creationist) but imho, it is well within acceptable reason to use some shortcut (such as one's belief about the lack of credibility of a 'creationist' science) to decide on what to spend time on. the next question may be: is it within reason to announce that i am taking such a shortcut? that is a little more difficult to defend, but i think many of us (with or without an ivy league education) indulge in that too.
i have never seen an episode of 'the sopranos' and i do not plan to, ever. i find nothing interesting in yet another mob/gangster movie/show with some required dose of physical violence thrown in. it is for similar reasons that i avoid broadway shows, reading the washington times, and listening to brittney spears. ;-) in the process, i may miss an occasional gem, but the shortcut pays off significantly, in the long run.
--ravi