An agnostic and design …

… Fred On Everything — Me, Derbyshire, and Darwin. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

These all sound like good questions to me, with the possible exception of tho one:

(1) In evolutionary principle, traits that lead to more surviving children proliferate. In practice, when people learn how to have fewer or no children, they do. Whole industries exist to provide condoms, diaphragms, IUDs, vasectomies, and abortions, attesting to great enthusiasm for non-reproduction. Many advanced countries are declining in population.   How does having fewer surviving children lead to having more surviving children? Less cutely, what selective pressures lead to a desire not to reproduce, and how does this fit into a Darwinian framework?

Perhaps what we see as advancement, by making life easy, takes away the drive to maintain it.