I often have to settle for disagreements, but the road there can still be fruitful
I've studied evolution and believe how we behave and what we are capable of is finely tuned to promote the survival of our genes. This goes for desires for frivolous material goods, jealousy, by far most of our fears and desires. What you call our ego is something I believe to come from within ourselves and it pushes our gene-survival agenda, although perhaps unconciously and unaware of it's true purpose. That competition that started out with the molecules in the primeaval soup is not over yet. Sometimes people don't think it makes sense, but they often forget the very basics - such as the need to see humans not so much in the light of civilization which evolution has no chance of keeping up with, but as the "cavemen" we were some tens of thousands of years ago.
One of the reasons I said science
and religion is a difficult explanation is that the two often contradict eachother as you're aware, often leading the believer to have to accept that parts of religion or science is not true. When something is obviously not true, you might still have to accept that other parts are true, but how do you then know they are? It might get messy and I think a lot of people find it hard to unite such beliefs. If you can believe in science and spirituality (not religion) in a way that it doesn't become contradictionary or paradoxal, that solves this problem effectively.