by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Proving that expertise in one field doesn't necessarily translate into broad scientific knowledge, neurosurgeon and Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson displayed shocking ignorance on November 4, when he claimed that Egypt's pyramids were built by the Biblical character Joseph to store grain.

Archeologists have documented that the pyramids were intended to be tombs of the pharaohs who built them. They are, in any case, not hollow as they'd have to be if they were meant to store grain.

Carson's odd belief came to light November 4, when BuzzFeed published a 1998 video of Carson speaking at the Seventh-Day Adventist Andrews University. Later the same day, Carson confirmed to CBS News that he still holds the same unscientific views.

'Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs' graves,' Carson says in the video. 'But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big - when you stop and think about it, and I don't think it'd just disappear over the course of time - to store that much grain.'

According to the Biblical story, Joseph had been sold as a slave to Egyptians and eventually became an advisor to the pharaoh. Foreseeing bad harvests coming on and the danger of a famine, Joseph began to hoard grain.

He 'stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure,' the Bible says. And he must have put it in the pyramids, Carson concluded.

'And when you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they'd have to be that way for various reasons,' Carson said. 'And various of [sic] scientists have said, 'Well, you know there were alien beings that came down, and they have special knowledge and that's how,' you know, it doesn't require an alien being when God is with you.'

Egyptian pyramids are almost solid stone structures, with very small chambers for the pharoah's sarcophagus and the goods he was expected to need in the afterlife. These chambers would not be able to hold a 'great abundance' of grain.

Carson's Republican rival, Donald Trump, lost no time in mocking his beliefs.

'He's informed me about the pyramids,' Trump said on the November 5 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe. 'I think I'll have to put that in my repertoire about Ben. That was a strange deal.'

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