GOP presidential front-runner Ben Carson says he stands by his theory that the Egyptian pyramids were built for storing grain during the great famine described in Genesis and said "secular progessives" are trying to ridicule his faith in questioning it.
"Some people believe in the Bible, like I do, and don’t find that to be silly at all," Carson told CNN during his book tour on Thursday. "And [they] believe that God created the Earth and don’t find that to be silly at all.
But, he added, "The secular progressives ridicule it anytime it comes up, and they're welcome to do that."
BuzzFeed on Wednesday posted a video of a commencement speech Carson gave in 1998 at Andrews University, which is associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church to which Carson belongs.
Carson said the size and structure of the pyramids made them more likely to have been built for grain storage than as tombs for the pharaohs, as most people believe.
In the Genesis account, Joseph, one of Abraham's 12 sons, is sold into slavery to Egypt by his jealous brothers, but once there rises to the ranks of second only to pharaoh after revealing the meaning of the leader's dream to be that seven years of bounty would be followed by seven years of famine.
Carson said he believes the pyramids, with their hermetically sealed chambers, were intended to keep the grain stored up during the years of plenty.