The Lost Symbol/Headscratchers


 * Is assisted suicide a crime in the US? Because that weighing the soul experiment certainly looks like it to me...
 * They did it For Science!.
 * So the bad guy's evil master plan was to kill himself? It seems like if everyone had just given him what he wanted, all their problems would have taken care of themselves.
 * Actually, the reason why the Big Bad was Bad is because he wanted to push the world into another dark age by killing Katherine and destroying the products of Noetic Science.
 * I'm still wondering what he would gained had he succeeded. Sure he believed he'd be reborn a demon-king but it is hard to see what practical use that would be to the world at large. Of course he may have thought he'd also get a physical resurrection if he did it properly, but there's no way to really be sure.
 * Most likely he knew the real damage would come from that a.) his father would have lost his entire family, including his own son slain by his own hands, and b.) the Masonic ritual video of the government officials being broadcast to the world, causing outrage and panic. Still it's one heck of a step to take to get even.