Naivety about sexual relationships

Using my secondary account as this is quite embarrassing. I'm 23 M and never even kissed anyone. I started dating earlier this year. I'm not really ashamed about my situation, but it's something that I've woken up to over the past year or so. I was looking at various statistics on this topic, and it seems I'm about 5 years past the average age to lose one's V card in most western, English speaking countries, in fact in all the countries surveyed, I'm past the average age. By age 25, <5 or 10% of people remain virgins. Surely the number of religious people is a lot higher than 5%. In many countries, the average age for marriage seems to be in the 25-33 or so range. Some of these countries (>90% of the population) are devoutly religious. This got me thinking: what about young adults who are religious and unmarried? It seems like there is a lot of sinning going on out there! I was having an awkward discussion about this with my mum, and she laughed at me when I mentioned this, and said, "I didn't think you were so naive!". I am a Christian, as are most of my family. Apparently it's not seen as a terrible sin anymore? I mean, some of my cousins (20s, early 30s) have had children out of wedlock.

I have trouble reading social cues due to my Aspergers. I have a date with a girl from tinder (23 F) this week. We've been in touch for quite a while and she seems keen to meet me. I'm pretty sure she's also a Christian, and I'm scared to initiate any sort of physical contact including kissing. I won't even do it on the first date, despite what people say ("just go for it", and the like).

It's extremely rare for me to discuss relationships and the like with my friends, and I find it oddly disturbing that most of them have probably reached this milestone, statistically.

Any unmarried Christians, or people of other faiths who are supposed to wait until marriage, and are in relationships, what is your take on this? Of course, I'd be happy to hear from non-religious folks or those who are married as well!

Submitted September 09, 2019 at 11:46PM

Using my secondary account as this is quite embarrassing. I'm 23 M and never even kissed anyone. I started dating earlier this year. I'm not really ashamed about my situation, but it's something that I've woken up to over the past year or so. I was looking at various statistics on this topic, and it seems I'm about 5 years past the average age to lose one's V card in most western, English speaking countries, in fact in all the countries surveyed, I'm past the average age. By age 25, <5 or 10% of people remain virgins. Surely the number of religious people is a lot higher than 5%. In many countries, the average age for marriage seems to be in the 25-33 or so range. Some of these countries (>90% of the population) are devoutly religious. This got me thinking: what about young adults who are religious and unmarried? It seems like there is a lot of sinning going on out there! I was having an awkward discussion about this with my mum, and she laughed at me when I mentioned this, and said, "I didn't think you were so naive!". I am a Christian, as are most of my family. Apparently it's not seen as a terrible sin anymore? I mean, some of my cousins (20s, early 30s) have had children out of wedlock.I have trouble reading social cues due to my Aspergers. I have a date with a girl from tinder (23 F) this week. We've been in touch for quite a while and she seems keen to meet me. I'm pretty sure she's also a Christian, and I'm scared to initiate any sort of physical contact including kissing. I won't even do it on the first date, despite what people say ("just go for it", and the like).It's extremely rare for me to discuss relationships and the like with my friends, and I find it oddly disturbing that most of them have probably reached this milestone, statistically.Any unmarried Christians, or people of other faiths who are supposed to wait until marriage, and are in relationships, what is your take on this? Of course, I'd be happy to hear from non-religious folks or those who are married as well!