If you want to read a bit about CF, Calfee has a nice whitepaper at
http://www.calfeedesign.com/whitepaper1.htm
Now since they make CF bikes I'm sure people will assume this is biased but you can make up your own mind. As waterrockets says if you do crash your CF someone like Calfee can repair it as good as new for a few hundred dollars.
Disclaimer: I ride a CF frame (also have ridden AL & Steel) and I love it and have no fear of failure.