A Tale of Two Views:Why are Scientists Polarized?

In his book, The Two Cultures, C. P. Snow, the chemist and writer, laments the fact that the world comprises of ‘Two polar groups: at one pole we have the literary intellectuals, at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two, a gulf of mutual incomprehension’ exists (The Two Cultures, Cambridge University Press, London, 2012). People of the two dispensation, seem to inhabit entirely different universes. The gulf could be even deeper and catastrophic, if we throw in laymen and clergy with scientists, as was witnessed during the Renaissance period. The most tragic fallout of such divide was of course the unfortunate fate met out to Bruno in 16th century Rome. In hindsight, the fault lines and the different universes, and the polarized views, could be attributed to the belief systems and grammar of life in which one was brought up. Simplistically therefore, had all been schooled similarly, one would not be witness to mutual incomprehension and polarized groups in society. But that is, as said, only simplistically.