You're not wrong to be afraid of the circular saw. Whenever it comes up I introduce it as "and here's the most dangerous tool I own". However I look at my table saw this way: getting the table saw allowed me to use it instead of the circular saw, for most jobs. So it's dangerous in itself, but a net safety win. Nevertheless I have nice 2" x 4" x 0.25" dent in my Craftsman toolbox from one time when my table saw decided to conduct an impromtu ballistics test at it from across the room. Thankfully I was standing to one side of the board I was feeding through.