What does it mean to study Mother Theresa Scientifically?

My thinking is that we could identify genes that have expressed in ways that maximize compassion, maybe even track the development of portions of the brain, measure brain response to stimulae, perhaps even measure levels of neuro-transmitters, etc. These would explain the "how" of Mother Theresa's compassion, but not the "why".

Of course, some folks say there is no why - the how is all there is.

One problem with supernatural explanations is that there is nothing to study because what happened was "not natural." As science has developed, we understand more - so, for example, we can describe the neuro-chemical changes that accompany love, and soon, I would expect us to identify the a genetic and / or developmental basis for the ability to experience an enhanced level of compassion. It may be supernatural, but even a miracle is manifested in the natural world- and so leaves clues that can be studied.

This is one reason that I am unsatisfied with the god in the gaps approach to faith. I think it is safe to suggest (though of course not proved) that everything we experience is mediated through some physical (natural) process. So far, we have not had to resort to the idea that some supernatural agency is required to keep everything going (though I've read that it gets a bit murky down in the quantum foam).

For example, I once prayed for someone with a bum knee. When I put my hand on the knee and he flexed it, I could feel roughness in the knee joint (felt like there was gravel beneath his kneecap). He told me that it hurt. After a few minutes of prayer, when he flexed his knee, it moved smoothly, and he told me that it did not hurt. I could have been mistaken, in the grip of some sort of mass hysteria, or the person with the complaint could have been a well-practiced fake. And I recognize that my story is just that- proof of nothing except that I said I had such an experience. All the same, if the right detection equipment were available, I would expect that each step of (what I believe to have been) a healing would have been measurable in the natural world.

If his knee was bum, and a few minutes later it was not, was that supernatural? Assume for a moment that it was not, and that bodies have some sort of untapped (at least in the western medical tradition) recuperative power. Shouldn't we study that and find out about it?

What if I was indeed mistaken, or he experienced some sort of placebo effect. I, at least, would like to know.

What if it was a miracle from God? What is the harm in trying to figure it out? What if we refused to look for natural causes, because "it was a miracle, and the healing cannot be explained without including God in the explanation." What good would that do us? I suggest we look at the facts and conclude 1. There was no healing. or 2. There was a healing, but we don't understand how it happened (but we might someday, by careful observation, figure out what happened, and apply the results to the practice of medicine, miracle or no). Of course there is a 3. it was a miracle, and no amount of science will ever tell us what went on. But how will we know if we don't try?

Not looking because it is a miracle, or giving up because "God did it" serves no purpose - this attitude would have prevented us from ever training a telescope on the heavens (after all, we would be peeking into God's realm).

So from a purely pragmatic view, methodological naturalism is the best approach to take as a scientist (and probably in most day-to-day activities), even if it does not encompass the entirety of a person's philosophy.