Ben Carson's unusual theory about pyramids ("It's still my belief, yes.")

CBS News ^

[springwater13]

NAPLES, Florida -- Ben Carson stood by his long-held belief about ancient pyramids in Egypt, that they were used to store grain, rather than to inter pharaohs.

Asked about this Wednesday, Carson told CBS News, "It's still my belief, yes."

The subject came up when Buzzfeed published a 1998 commencement speech delivered by Carson at Andrews University, a college founded by Seventh-day Adventists.

"My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain," Carson said. "Now all the archeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs' graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if 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."

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks for the links. Here is something else to think about:

‘Dr. David Noel Freedman has also expressed the need for caution in identifying Imhotep with Joseph. After reviewing an early manuscript of mine containing this tentative suggestion he wrote to me in a personal letter dated December 2, 1991 as follows:

While there may well be parallel features in the careers and life-stories of the two men, it would be very risky to identify them. Analogies are one thing, equations are another. There is no hint anywhere that Imhotep was anything but a real Egyptian, which is exactly what Joseph was not. And Joseph’s Egyptian name [Zaphenath-paneah (Genesis 41:45)] is totally different [from Imhotep], in fact a name that doesn’t find any similarities in Egyptian onomastica before the Saite period [ca. 675—525 B.C.], I believe.’

http://www.biblicalchronologist.org/answers/Imhotep_Joseph.php

[Fantasywriter]

More from the same site listed above:

Dear Dr. Aardsma,
There was a time when I thought Imhotep, vizier of Djoser, could have been Joseph. Further research quickly altered this view. There existed, in the Egyptian workshops, lists and family trees of the famous chiefs of works. (See Pierre Montet, Eternal Egypt, 1964 for background.) The name of Imhotep’s father is known from these lists, as recorded by Egyptian archaeologist, Ahmed Fakhry: [Ahmed Fakhry, The Pyramids (University of Chicago Press, 1961), 24—26.]

We do not know where he [Imhotep] was born, but a vague and brief reference by one of the classical writers suggests that the village of Gebelein, south of Luxor, was his home. A monument giving the names of his parents dates from between 495 and 491 B.C. It is an inscription in the Wadi el Hammamat. The oldest name is that of Ka-nefer, who was Director of Works of Upper and Lower Egypt. The second name was his son, Imhotep.
Fakhry adds (pages 4 and 5), Imhotep was an architect, whose father also had been an architect. This fact alone rules out the identification of Imhotep as Joseph.

Pierre Montet wrote that as the King’s architect, Imhotep constructed sanctuaries of stone for the gods and goddesses of Egypt -— the first beneficiaries being Nekhebet, the god of Memphis, Thoth of Khnum, and Horus of Edfu. [See Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, (Harper & Row, 1971).] An inscription in a crypt of the temple of the goddess Hathor, at Dendera, indicated it had been built according to the plans of Imhotep.

Imhotep’s greatest achievement was the step pyramid, which was identical in design to the ziggurats of Babylon. There is every indication that he was a devotee of the Mystery Babylon religion, which had been adopted by the Egyptians. One of Imhotep’s titles was High Priest of Heliopolis, city of the sun [god]. Joseph, the man of God, would have had no part in any of the activities ascribed to Imhotep.

Mrs. Beverly J. Neises
Rainier, OR

[Fred Nerks]

The 'sarcophagus' in the Pyramid reminds me of the massive 'boxes' with incredibly heavy lids found in the Serapeum:

iirc, some Frenchman tried to blow one up with dynamite and found nothing inside.

Secrets of the Serapeum

[Fred Nerks]

...And there we have these containers of 80 tons that are found nowhere else in Egypt or in the world. Imagine the technological precision used to drill to perfection these enormous thick troughs of granite in one piece, with corners that are perfect inside and out, exactly parallel. It's just incredible, unequalled to this day, and represents an achievement way beyond the ordinary. In the words of the engineer Christopher Dunn, who went in 1995 to take measurements with properly calibrated instruments, "Nobody makes such things without having a very good reason for their design," and "the tools used to create (these objects) are so precise that they are incapable of producing anything other than perfect accuracy." We are far from the worker with a hammer trying to gouge out a lump of stone. The surfaces of these huge containers are perfectly smooth with precise and perfect edges, made from a solid block of granite of an unbelievable thickness. For many experts this perfection is the proof that a very advanced civilization lived in Egypt a very long time ago...

[dinodino]

Hey, you’re asking the wrong guy. I think Carson et al. are insane for suggesting that pyramids were used to store grain.

[Fred Nerks]

Looks like portions of the outer casings still remain

[ViLaLuz]

So? It’s not as crazy as Bruce Jenner believing he’s a woman, abortionist believing preborn babies aren’t human, Benghazi was caused by an awful video, 0bama is American, etc. Etc. Etc.

[Fred Nerks]

http://media.smh.com.au/video-news/video-world-news/ben-carson-still-believes-pyramids-were-grain-stores-6989069.html

Video

[highball]

“The Palinization of Ben Carson continues.”

Palin never said anything this stupid and this demonstrably wrong.

Bye-bye, Ben. Not ready for prime time.

[laplata]

He was a gonner before he started.

[highball]

He was a goner when he told his first fib, the first time he went all Brian Williams. A long time ago.

Better for him to get out now.

[laplata]

I think he will fade out.

[steve86]

Said today the whole grain storage fiasco will have been worth it if he ends up being buried (royally) in one (pyramid).

[Candor7]

Exactly.

“For many experts this perfection is the proof that a very advanced civilization lived in Egypt a very long time ago...”

And excavations deep down parallel to the fondations of the pyramids at Giza, and astute batteries of radio-chemical analysis will tell us their purpose.

[Fred Nerks]

There is much before our very eyes we don't understand:

Precision.

And that's just one small slab...from Abu Roash

[r_barton]

Obviously the pyramids were built to store dollar bills. Look on the back of a One. ;-)

[Candor7]

If it was a radial saw, then it was 568 odd inches in diameter? That’s a 47 foot diameter saw.

But looking at the cupped shape of the rock, it could not have been sawn radially but with a wire saw or band saw, or with a laser.