As a rider of steel bikes I'm duty bound to weigh in here with opinions and anecdotal evidence. Assploding CF frames get a lot of play, let one break in South Africa and there will be a thread about it on BF. Other than in a race, I've never seen a CF failure. Go to a group ride and see how old some of the CF frames are, I don't see much difference between long term wear of CF and other materials.
psst: Don't tell anybody, but I have a CF fork and seat post on my steel bike