After the sexual revolution of that happened 60 years ago and the acceptance of casual sex even on television 40 years ago, OP is going with the “the puritans of the 1600’s are to blame”.
I LOL’ed.
I highly recommend the OP Google his closest dive bar and drink until closing time then go and change those stats personally.
They just won't admit to it openly or on surveys.
There are places where religion is common but isn't taken that seriously, and then there are places were it's common and it is taken very seriously. Sounds like your school was the former and that's fine. It doesn't preclude the existence of the latter.
The parent poster implied that people were highly bound by their religion; I simply offered a counterexample. I am not saying that abstinence until marriage never happens.
> and/or don't begin their sexual exploration until well into college
This is not relevant since the teaching is abstinence until marriage, not abstinence until college.
That isn't true. You offered a counterargument.
> This is not relevant since the teaching is abstinence until marriage, not abstinence until college.
A common effect of religious influence is delayed sexual exploration (i.e., later than what's natural given human biological development). The fact that you need this to be explained to you shows that you aren't aware of the phenomenon we're discussing. It's something that's very hard to understand if you haven't lived it.
One recurring thing in particular: religious men who have sex with men and consider themselves abstinent/faithful to their wives because "it doesn't count."
Also, the US is still super puritan, it is conservative outwardly and it makes up for it by being deviant privately, travel, most countries are much more open about sex. Be it public display of affection, legal sex work, sex education, down to just physical contact from kisses in greetings, and public nudity at the beach, etc.
Americans are, in general, prudes in public and slutty in private. While much of the world is the opposite.