<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Why Are The New Atheists So Often&nbsp;Boring?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Leah Libresco<a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unequallyyoked/2011/12/picking-the-boring-fight.html" target="_self"> tries to explain</a> why the spate of anti-religion books sometimes seem like intellectual snoozers:</p> <blockquote> <p>I won’t deny that the New Atheists are going after the intellectually easy targets, but that’s because the anti-intellectual evangelicals are much more politically threatening than the Aquinas-reading theologians. &#0160;We have to fight all of them on gay marriage, but it’s the boring ones who tend to make trouble when it comes to evolution, global warming, and medicine (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/research/no-link-is-seen-between-hpv-vaccine-and-girls-sexual-risks.html">HPV doesn’t increase promiscuity</a>, btw).</p> </blockquote>]]></html></oembed>