The strange maps blog posted the blond/blonde map of Europe last Tuesday. What I found even more interesting were the eupedia maps, first of the majority religion:
Then consider the map of the age of sexual consent:
People who consider Catholics sexual prudes might think we were as strict as Turkey, but Spain and Italy as more … well, you fill in the adjective … than Scandinavia: draw your own conclusions.
9 December 2007 at 5:12 pm
… that catholics like having sex with little kids. Yes we all are familiar with the practice of your clergy, you can stop rubbing our faces in it.
9 December 2007 at 8:48 pm
Well, let’s not forget Ireland, which has the second oldest age of consent in Europe. And it’s probably more Catholic than the pope.
12 December 2007 at 7:20 am
You could move your bigotry elsewhere, “Ali Hassan”, sick people having sex with little kids is something else than adults having consensual sex with youths.
One possible explanation for this large difference might be the historically rather repressive attitude towards sexuality in legislation that was the norm in Germany and countries under German influence. This included increases in the age of consent, sometimes to as high as 18 years, which have been only partly reversed in recent decades. Most catholic countries did not experience this and the age of consent has stayed low. Another similar phenomenon is the legal attitude towards homosexuality: it was legalized in the European catholic countries already in 19th century, but in protestant countries only in later 20th century.
Of course official legislation does not necessarily reflect the general attitude towards things. It may be lagging behind, or laws may be liberal but most people prudes. Sometimes laws can be just arbitrary, like in the United States, where age of consent varies from one state to another, sometimes being 16 years and sometimes 18, even though the neighbouring states may be very similar in their values, including prudeness.