Brain chemicals and practising virtues

I recently read these two interesting articles over at The School of Life, on brain chemistry and going good. It’s weird the way we now feel compelled to find scientific benefits or reasons for such things (the natural outcome of taking evolution, purely, on board as your reason for existence). Here’s a snippet from this one:

Because doing something for someone else without expecting anything in return is the best way to put our brain in the finest possible state.

It’s funny how science now ‘gives us permission’ to practice common decency.

And I liked this clarifier from this one:

To discover a molecule that correlates with compassionate behaviour doesn’t mean that being compassionate is not a moral stance. We’re not slaves to the chemicals in our brains, we are the chemicals in our brains and we do plenty of things to raise or lower their levels at will.

I find this School of Life so curious. On their facebook page at the moment they are running a "month of reaching out", which sounds eerily like a Christian mission (only without the most important element, that being the gospel).