Things to do in Nashville when you get tired of going to the movies

Cultural institutions in the Nashville area:

The Frist Center

Adventure Science Center

Belle Meade Plantation

Belmont Mansion

Belmont University Leu Art Gallery

Belmont University School of Music (Events)

Blair School of Music Concert Series

Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

David Lipscomb University Galleries

Fisk University

The Hermitage

Nashville Public Library

Parthenon

Tennessee State Museum

Tennessee State University Galleries

Vanderbilt University

(I admit, The Frist Center's web site has a list of a lot of these then I added a few of my own)

My polemic: God is not the author of evil despite verses like 1 Sam 16:14

My response to this post: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2006/12/where-do-evil-spirits-come-from.html

"Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him" -1 Samuel 16:14

God sent an evil spirit in the same sense that He sent evil armies to capture His chosen people (Israelites) on occasion. He occasionally uses evil to punish evil. He is, however, not the author of evil (Genesis 1:31, John 1:13, 1 John 1:5, 1 Corinthians 14:33). 

As far as God being benevolent, that sounds like a strawman argument. Believers should never claim the universality of God's "benevolence" (aka, being kindly or charitable) because that's indeed not biblically accurate anyway. God is, however, universally "good". In that I mean he is always either just (in the final analysis people receive what they deserve) or gracious (people are shown favor they don't deserve). However God is never unjust. If someone sees God as not benevolent then the "fault" as it were lies with the person, not with God. God may be acting toward many different ends (refining the person through fire and punishing or judging the person's evil deeds or thoughts, are just two such examples). 

Whether you believe you or people in general are good and God if exists is evil or whether you think it is mankind who chooses evil and God who's inherently good is a if not the fundamental question at the heart of whether you are a believer or not. Your posture to that question determines your trust in God (your faith) and not the other way around.

I'll just add one other thought: the fact that we can be agents of evil doesn't make God (who created us capable of being agents of evil) held morally responsible for our evil any more than it implies we were created "flawed". Our ability to chose to rebel against God, displeasing Him at every corner, doesn't mean we're inherently created flawed rather it merely gives evidence to the fact that we were created with the ability to love. Robots don't love because they simply do the only thing they are capable of (namely to obey their creator; their programming). The fact that we can disobey and create evil is only evidence that God desired to create us with the ability to love Him. Love that is forced or coerced simply isn't love. To love means to have the ability to not love. To always have a perfect world means no one has the ability to choose evil. I think there will be a perfect world one day and all wrongs will be made right but we're not there yet. The decision is ours to choose. Not whether to be good or to be bad but merely whether to have faith that God is good or to not have that faith. As for evidence of His goodness, well that's where we find the object of that faith: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (or as we Christians refer to him: Emmanuel: God with us). Properly understood, He is all the evidence we need. He's the smoking gun that points to the goodness of God.