Part of why taking ‘explanations of humanity’ from ‘findings in science’, particularly related to metabolism and the brain… is absolutely backwards.

“Deprived of an explanation in terms of a final cause the reason that makes sense of a behaviour in terms of its outcome — scientists sometimes think they have accounted for a phenomenon by redescribing it on another level. Thus Dunbar explains our indulging in ‘futile’ activities by reference to endorphins. Grooming, music, togetherness, love, religion — all turn out mysteriously to release endorphins. ‘Sound familiar?’, he queries, on one such occasion, pleased with the simplicity of his solution, but aware that it has clocked up a few air miles by now: ‘Well, of course it is: it is the endorphin story all over again.’ And that is supposed to explain »at last why we need, enjoy and take comfort in such things. But is this really any different from proudly announcing that, after prolonged research, we have discovered that the reason we dislike being belittled, ignored, or hit over the head with a shillelagh is that it causes depletion of endorphins, reduced bioavailability of serotonin, secretion of cortisol or overdrive of the sympathetic nervous system? In the real world, however, we do not choose to engage in activities because they release endorphins, and endorphin release is a blast; it’s that when we engage in what, for a [sic] myriad complex and subtle reasons, has meaning and importance for us, we are happier, endorphins merely being part of the final common pathway for happiness at the neurochemical level — just as we avoid a mugger not because we’d like to maintain our levels of serotonin as log as possible but because he’s likely to attack us and make life miserable for us, depleted serotonin just being the final common pathway of misery.”

— Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary