Not that this is really shocking news, but it does deserve repeating:

U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.

The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn’t successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.

Of course to the crazies on the right, this is all part of some big master plan to turn Americans off of religion.

The objective of this study? To convince college-educated middle-class people that religious faith is the No. 1 force for evil in the modern world. “OMG! If we let our daughter go to church, kiss Vassar good-bye!”

I must have missed the meeting that covered ways to blame others on the short fallings of your own beliefs. Perhaps that was the week my secret decoder ring was broken and I couldn’t get into the secret meeting where we all plan on ways to destroy the right. Will someone email me the minutes? Encode them in the obamasparentsplannedonhimbeingpresidentandstarteddecievinganationabouthisbirthalmost50yearsago format.