The Lost Symbol -- a Fun Read for Mormons and Americans

I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown some months ago with several expectations in mind.  

I had read a couple of his other books.  The first was the DaVinci Code and the second, I think, was Angels and Demons but I’m not sure.  I did like the DaVinci Code but I didn’t like the way the Catholic Church was eviscerated.  Just me on that.

I also wanted to learn something more about the Masons as they do have a famous or infamous tie-in with Joseph Smith and the Mormons.   I didn’t want them thrashed like the Catholics.  They were not. 

I also wanted to find out what the deal was with the our Founding Fathers, and specifically the fresco painted on the dome in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. that depicts George Washington becoming a God which is entitled “The Apotheosis of Washington”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington It is definitely of some interest to Mormons who indeed to believe that man, indeed, can become as God is.  Aha!  That fresco is reprinted here.  Also, did the Masons have a hand in laying out Washington, D.C.?  Apparently Brown did go a little far in putting this idea across.  

Another item of great interest to me that is broached in the book is that of Noetic Sciences, or powers of the mind, which I did not expect.    I’d like to know more.  

I would suspect that much of what Dan Brown writes about has been thoroughly researched and it would be difficult to find what it is about his writings that make the leap from fact to fiction, but I’d love to do more follow-through on some of it.  

I have done research on the Mormons and Masons, have been to their downtown Salt Lake Temple, inside and out, seen their uniforms they wear and talked to their members, and am confident there is little commonality between the two, and that Joseph Smith had his revelations on the Temple Endowment long before his association with the Masons in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois.  So rumors that the Temple Endowment was taken from the Masons is really of no concern to me.  I’ll do something on that later.

The Lost Symbol started out a little slowly for me as I was in Hawaii and Dan Brown is a rather formulaic writer, but things get heated up about three-quarters of the way through.  The killings, the goofy tattooed guy and the menacing stuff got a bit old to me by this book because they are too similar to former books though there were some twists, but I did like learning about the Masons, Noetics and, of course, Washington, D.C.  I’d even recommend it on those accounts.  In fact, I’d recommend it on all accounts.  

I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan Brown didn’t have the Mormons in his sights for one of his next books.  It might be kind of interesting, in fact.  The Church is true, God is in His Heaven so it might be kind of interesting and put some interest our way.  I guess we do get into trouble when “anti-Mormons” get rolling, but we can take it.  On the other hand . . . Yipes?