Teen pregnancy, religion.

[Strong Atheist]

http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/16013

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Sex/study-finds-teen-pregnancy-common-religious-states/story?id=8602283

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/09/18/too-much-religion-leads-to-high-teen-pregnancy-rates.html

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/religions-link-to-teen-pregnancy/

http://www.examiner.com/x-5445-Politics-in-Education-Examiner~y2009m9d19-Teen-birth-rates-higher-in-religious-states---more-evidence-favoring-comprehensive-sex-education

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32884806/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/teenbirthrateshigherinhighlyreligiousstates

http://www.examiner.com/x-14207-Lodi-Spiritual-Living-Examiner~y2009m9d17-High-teen-pregnancy-ratesconservative-religious-states-New-study-results-indicate-correlation

[stuball111]

1. Nowhere does it say in the bible....

Thou shall not Fuck....maybe they should put it in there....:rofl: Seriously,among other things, when you don't educate kids, they just run on hormones. A study was done in inner city teens a few years ago, and the ones that did the sex-ed course had a drop of 70% in the pregnancy rate, and the African American kids had an even higher drop! Seems they were a bit smarter than the other groups in the area of abstinence and protection.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Biblical marriage:

Solomon and his 900 porcupines.

:rofl:

[MineralMan]

3. Could it be that gullibility is a factor?

If you can believe in superstitious nonsense, you can believe a horny teenage boy saying that he loves you?

Makes sense to me.

[Sal316]

4. Wow, what a simplistic view.

"If you're stupid enough to believe in God, then you're stupid enough to get fooled by a teenage boy."

The subject of teens, sex, and the Church is one I'm pretty passionate about. To sum up, I think the methodology that the Church uses is antiquated and ineffective. Seriously, approaching it as a "just say NO" is counterproductive.

Teens today are searching for more depth and have access to more information than previous generations. They're looking for the "why", and if the Church doesn't shift the way it talks about this subject, it's going to find itself more and more irrelevant.

While I know that would delight atheists to no end, it is my opinion that it would only drive the Church to become even more hard-line, perhaps to the point where that would be the prevailing opinion and any hope of rational discussion of these issues would be lost.

What makes change difficult is the opinion that any discussion of safe sex is equal to giving teens the green light to boink away. I had just written about this and you can see this opinion in all its glory here in Teenagers, sex and the Church

Fact: Teens are nowhere near ready, physically, emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually, for sex.

But it's also fact that if they're not given the complete picture, including information on contraception and the consequences of sex, they are more likely to form incorrect and, in some cases, unhealthy attitudes towards sex leading them to make poor choices.

So, no, it's not gullibility, its a lack of education. This doesn't fall only on the Church, but on parents as well. Sex should not be a one time talk, but a continual education.

[MineralMan]

5. Well, you changed my words, didn't you.

As for teens not being ready for sex, you are quite incorrect. Indeed, through human history, the teen years have always been the time that sex was initiated. In basic cultures, sex and child-rearing began with the menses of girls. It was necessary, since lifespans were short and time was a-wasting to make babies and raise them to adolescence, at least before you, yourself were gone.

Our current situation is an artificial one. We take adolescents, fully physically ready for sex and reproduction and tell them they shouldn't do that. It doesn't work. It has never worked. No, they're not ready emotionally, in many cases, because they've been kept at an emotional age not connected with their physical age.

I was being partly facetious, of course in my statement that gullibility was the reason for teen sex. In reality, it is those who are the most gullible who buy into the artificial minimum age acceptable for sexual activity in at least parts of this society.

Our adolescents will have sex, regardless of what we tell them. So, as you say, comprehensive sex education is the answer. If they can have sex safely, willingly, and have fun with it without the consequences of doing so, then the pressure will be off.

Not every society is as hung up on not having sex as adolescents as we are here in the USA. It's bogus. It doesn't work, and the consequences are severe.

As for my original statement, it is rather true that girls who are the most religious who are the easiest to convince to engage in sexual activity, generally. The least active are usually the bright young women, who are taking charge of their lives at an early age and who are not as susceptible to the pleadings and pawings of the young men. That is not to say that they aren't having sex, too, but, they're more careful and knowledgeable about it.

In Sweden, the age of consent is 15. Sex education is a constant thing throughout childhood and early adolescence. The unwanted pregnancy and STD rates in Sweden are so far below ours that it is a clear indicator of where we should be going.

Religion doesn't prevent sexual activity. Not even close.

[rd_kent]

6. Is anyone really surprised?

Just another example of how religion is a BLIGHT on society.

[gk88850]

7. Very informative. Thanks.