A new nationwide study examining the consumption of internet pornography revealed some pretty interesting tidbits, especially when viewed through the prism of faith and politics. Among the conclusions reached by the study, as reported by NewScientist…

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.

Perhaps getting out of the magical underwear is not as difficult as it appears…

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

What’s the deal Hawaii and Florida? You can operate the computer but not the ballot box?

Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code’s religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.

Less guilt, Monday through Saturday I guess…

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behaviour.”

Oh the hypocrisy. I wonder how many of those 11% are closeted, homosexual homophobe? Or perhaps like anyone who is repressed, they want what they aren’t supposed to have all the more…