Evolution Question... please enlighten me!

[_truth dancer]

OK, for all my brilliant cyber friends who know everything there is to know about evolution, I have a question.

It is a given that we evolve. Life forms have the instinct to survive and get their genes into the next generation. OK.

But, today we see plenty of people who do not want offspring at all.

What happened to the instinct for offspring alive for billions of years? How did it disappear in so many people?

It seems the lack of desire for children is commensurate with education in females; with the world moving toward furthering education fewer and fewer people will want offspring so again what happened to the very fundamental instinct for offspring?

I understand that mating is still alive and well (smile), but I'm interested in the process of evolution and how it changed.

Thanks for any insight!

[_Canucklehead]

I certainly don't know everything there is to know about evolution, and I don't consider myself "brilliant" on the subject, but perhaps the evolutionarily instilled drive isn't purely for "offspring" but more for sex itself. In that case, offspring would just be the evolutionarily favoured byproduct of the sex drive.

Another possibility to consider is that people who choose not to have children still have a drive for offspring, but decide to overrule it in order to pursue other goals. Kind of like how we can ignore our food cravings because we choose to pursue other fitness goals instead.

[_The Nehor]

I think the desire for sex and for offspring are two separate desires.

[_Phaedrus Ut]

It's only recently that the choice between having children and having sex became a option.

I did think of the beginning of the movie Idiocracy when I was typing this.


Phaedrus

[_TAK]

Two things to consider but not the sole reasons ..
Improved contraception and the need for children to help provide and take care of you when get older..

[_The Nehor]

It's only recently that the choice between having children and having sex became a option.

I did think of the beginning of the movie Idiocracy when I was typing this.


Phaedrus

True, but infanticide was still an option and was sometimes exercised. There is a desire for children in most people. It can be suppressed but it's there.

[_moksha]

It seems the lack of desire for children is commensurate with education in females; with the world moving toward furthering education fewer and fewer people will want offspring so again what happened to the very fundamental instinct for offspring?

Would this then make the conservative desire to keep females barefoot, ignorant and in the family way, part of a larger desire to preserve the species?

?

[_Gadianton]

What happened to the instinct for offspring alive for billions of years? How did it disappear in so many people?

Is there really an animal instinct for offspring in nature? Males desire to have sex with as many females as possible, females desire to have sex with the most successful males and protect their eggs or litter, but that hardly translates into a desire to rear children into adulthood.

[_bcspace]

Would this then make the conservative desire to keep females barefoot, ignorant and in the family way, part of a larger desire to preserve the species?

Doesn't exist in conservatism. Only in liberal dreams.

[_moksha]

Only in liberal dreams.

They are doing way different stuff in my dreams.

.