Doing the Math

The World Bank pegs the global GDP in 2004 at US$40.887 trillion [source]

I have included a chart showing how much of the USA's GSP has been devoted to NASA. The peak was the Apollo program which approached 1% of everything produced by the USA.

The pricetag that Scientology puts on becoming an OT8 - i.e. a 'clear' - can be approximately US$380,000 [source]

The population of the world is around 6.7 Billion people. [source]

Scientology's stated intent is to Clear the World.

So my question is : what will that cost?

Based on the above, I came up with:

6 700 000 000 * 380 000 = 2.54600 × 10¹⁵

Or US$254,600,000,000,000,000,000

Or 254 and a half Quintillion greenbacks.

So let's compare that with ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD:

(6 700 000 000 * 380 000) / 40 887 000 000 000 = 62.2691809

Or it will cost more than 62 times all of the wealth in the entire world to Clear the entire world.

Now - I want to go out of my way to point out that I am not bashing Scientology. I am simply pointing out a logical question:

Assuming that I got my math even vaguely correct - there is a huge discrepency here. The largest uncertainty comes from the price-tag. If I am way over the top there (and I have yet to see any evidence of that) - and it is only a third of that price - then do we really need twenty-something planets worth of resources to Get The Job Done?

Or.... or maybe - just maybe - The Church of Scientology needs to start working on getting that price down. A lot.

According to Tom Cruise, they're just here to help. Right? Well so am I. Lower your prices to match your mission. Anything else belies a lack of Conviction in your own Beliefs.

The finest yardstick to measure someone by is how they measure up to their own beliefs, no?

[Full Disclosure - I am not a Scientologist. I do not advocate a belief in anything. My intention is not religious persecution, rather I am simply exercising my freedom of speech to ask questions about what appear to be logical fallacies. My best advice to everyone is: "Question Everything - Real Truth should be able to honestly answer all questions."

If you still find my questions to be offensive after the courtesy that I have afforded you then my advice is to grow thicker skin and think deeply on a regular basis. No 'belief' should be so weak as to be put at risk by someone else asking questions.]