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Carson is a Seventh-day Adventist, and hence a young-earth creationist. (Yes, I know. It's mind-boggling, isn't it?) And he's stood by the remark. So almost certainly he was being (and continues to be) serious.

nightspirit 3873 days ago

I'm not sure if this shows he is really serious or exactly the opposite.

In Poland there is a guy, Janusz Palikot, who in 2005 owned a "Christian", anti-(many things including LGBT) newspaper but later sold it and founded a pro-LGBT, anti-religion political party.

All Seventh-day Adventist are NOT young-earth creationists.

http://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/humanity/creation/

That may be, but it is official church doctrine:

"God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” and rested on the seventh day."

Yes, they quote the bible. Yes, many Christian churches quote the same text and call it the same. No, it does not mean all Seventh Day Adventists are young earth creationists.

I didn't say all 7DAs were YECs. But the fact of the matter is that YEC is the church's official position. And Ben Carson is on record as believing in a six-day creation, and professing ignorance of the age of the earth. So we can quibble over the YE part, but not the C part. Ben Carson is without question a creationist.

> Was he being serious or just trying to score some sympathy of Jews and Christians?

He's just ignorant. Jews would not vote for someone who knows so little about their history. Christians may not be as familiar with the history.

According to Jewish history Josef stored grain in the year 1532BCE, but the pyramids were mostly finished by 1759BCE, more than 200 years earlier.

The pyramids having anything whatsoever to do with the Exodus is a myth created by Hollywood, it is not a Jewish belief at all.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/secret-chambers-grain-s...

nightspirit 3873 days ago

> The pyramids having anything whatsoever to do with the Exodus is a myth created by Hollywood, it is not a Jewish belief at all.

Any source? Google only returns articles about Carson, so it looks like it may be his idea.

edit: It seems to be an old story, easily predating both Carson and Hollywood.

Source for which? For grain in general? For Josef supposedly being the one to store it? Or for the pyramids having nothing to do with the Jews being slaves in Egypt?

nightspirit 3872 days ago

For Hollywood. You said that associating pyramids with Biblical events was their idea, so I thought that maybe there was some particular movie which spawned this meme.

mcv 3873 days ago

I don't think it's created by Hollywood. I don't think it'd be all that odd to assume they might be the legendary grain silos when they'd just been found and hadn't been opened up yet. It's just that after they've been opened and examined, and we know a lot more about them, it's silly to cling to something that's so obviously false.

The grain might not have been Hollywood.

I meant the idea that Jewish slaves built the pyramids. That idea comes from Hollywood, it is not a Jewish belief.

wavefunction 3873 days ago

@nightspirit

Ben Carson is a Seventh-day Adventist and he does believe that the Pyramids of Giza were built by the Biblical Joseph to store grain. I'm sure he's also interested in gaining the support of Christian and Jewish voters but this is ultimately an example of one of his personal beliefs.

> I'm sure he's also interested in gaining the support of Christian and Jewish voters

If anything that will loose him Jewish votes.

According to Jewish history Josef stored grain in the year 1532BCE, but the pyramids were mostly finished by 1759BCE, more than 200 years earlier.

If you are going to base a belief in the Bible, maybe actually know what it says first?

coldtea 3873 days ago

>According to Jewish history Josef stored grain in the year 1532BCE, but the pyramids were mostly finished by 1759BCE, more than 200 years earlier. If you are going to base a belief in the Bible, maybe actually know what it says first?

Well, if you're going to base a belief in the Bible, why take an outside estimation (the 1759BCE number) into account at all?

It's not an outside estimation, it's based on dates written in the bible. You don't get to believe in the bible and claim a significantly different date for this event.

Carson's position is simply illogical. Either he doesn't know the bible well, or he disagrees with the estimated dates for the construction of the pyramids.

I suspect it's the former, not the latter. He definitely doesn't get my vote.

coldtea 3873 days ago

>It's not an outside estimation, it's based on dates written in the bible.

The 1759 BCE chronology is based on when archeology says the pyramids were finished. Which is very much an outside estimation -- someone who believes in the Bible can just sidestep it as an inaccurate estimation by archeologists.

In fact it's even worse: there are no dates given in the Bible regarding that story. The 1532BCE number is ALSO an external estimation, based on when historians think who the Pharaohs mentioned was and when he lived. Again, someone who believes in the Bible can just sidestep it as an inaccurate estimation by those historians.

>You don't get to believe in the bible and claim a significantly different date for this event.

You could very much do that too.

Even if there was a specific date mentioned in the Bible about the event and you wanted to reconcile that with a different date that archeology gives, you could just as well believe in the Bible as a collection of first person accounts written by various persons (from kings like Solomon and prophets like Isaiah to wealthy merchants and peasants) that naturally have small inaccuracies here and there.

Not everybody who believes in the Bible thinks it's the perfect account as written down by God himself accurate to any single word (the Eastern Orthodox church, for one, doesn't believe that at all).

>Carson's position is simply illogical. Either he doesn't know the bible well, or he disagrees with the estimated dates for the construction of the pyramids.

Actually there's nothing illogical about disagreeing with the estimated dates for the construction of the pyramids. Heck, archeologists themselves disagree all the time in this or that chronology.

If you think you have a better source of information (the bible in this case) it's perfectly rational to believe that over measly human estimations.

Shivetya 3873 days ago

He will lose Jewish votes simply because he is running as a Republican more so than his odd takes on history surrounding the Christian Church. All politicians have eccentricities, as long as they are harmless I am more concerned about what they want to accomplish. That and their character are my two big areas of concern

> Seventh-day Adventist and he does believe that the Pyramids of Giza were built by the Biblical Joseph to store grain.

This is not a belief of the church. We have enough FUD spread about various religions.

http://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/humanity/creation/

Actually we don't have nearly enough uncertainty and doubt.

Yes, now get into a debate about the time it took those seven days. My original statement stands, and I expect just as much FUD this time as we had in the 60's.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/ben-carson-creat...

Do you see the word "recent" in the church's official position? What do you think "recent" means?

But whether or not Ben Carson is a young-earth creationist he is without question a creationist, specifically a six-day creationist:

Personally, I don't much care about the particular flavor of Ben Carson's wing-nuttery. The fact that he's the leading contender for the Republican nomination is deeply disturbing. And the Republican leadership agrees with me, BTW:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/time-for-gop-panic-e...

Look, I grew up in a mixed SDA/Catholic household and I'm a bit sick of this crap every time we talk about Mormons, SDA, or Catholics. Its spreading FUD, and of course the establishment Republicans are going to throw a damn fit since Jeb is their candidate.