John Hubble, father of Edwin Hubble, was a staunch Baptist and an insurance underwriter, and he wrote in 1900 about the core human conflict of self versus the collective that was captured by insurance. “The best definition we have found for civilization,” he wrote, “is that a civilized man does what is best for all, while the savage does what is best for himself. Civilization is but a huge mutual insurance company against human selfishness.”
