I have always thought the bible was more a metaphoric expression of ideas to live by. The the Church is a wonderful place to gain insight, encouragment and find like minded people but in the end it is on each of us alone to bring the good or the bad into our own lives through the choices we make and it is our own responsibility to seek out those things in life that will bring us pleasure or pain, or to seek reason when we have only ignorance. Of caurse every now and then we get some natural disaster to keep us motivated. But I think our struggle with our own ego is actaully good for us, it is what challenges us to be better people. It is when we fall that we learn to be humble.