When Buzzfeed reported yesterday that it is Ben Carson’s sincerely-held religious belief that the Pyramids weren’t built as tombs, but rather that Joseph — that guy from Genesis — built them to store grain, I actually laughed out loud. I watched the video of Carson’s remarks, which were part of a commencement address he gave at Andrews University in 1998, I thought that maybe he was joking, or was delivering a loosely-grounded moral message. When he said that scientists believe that the Pyramids were actually built by aliens — a belief that no “scientist” outside of the History Channel holds — but that “you know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you,” I was willing to hold out the possibility that he wasn’t serious. I mean, Ben Carson’s got some odd ideas now, but was he really that loony in 1998, too?

Apparently, the answer to that question is yes:

Asked last night by CBS News if he still believes that the Pyramids were build by Joseph to store grain, Carson confirmed that, yes, he is still an idiot, saying:

The Pyramids were made in a way that they had hermetically sealed compartments. You wouldn’t need hermetically sealed compartments for a sepulcher. You would need that if you were trying to preserve grain over a long period of time.

It takes a pretty massive ego to extrapolate history from the Bible and declare it as more valid than scientific evidence. It takes an even bigger conspiratorial bent to think that hordes of archaeologists over the last century — many of whom are presumably just as smart as you — have all covered up evidence that the Pyramids were actually meant to store grain by coming up with an anti-Biblical cover story involving the whims of men who believed they were themselves gods.

Because that’s what you have to believe in order to consider everything archaeologists have found in the Pyramids over the last century and say, “nah.” You have to believe that not only is your Bible a necessary and sufficient guide in matters it does not specifically reference, but that everyone who isn’t using the Bible — and comes to a different conclusion — is out to cover up the ~real story~.

By the way, he’s in a statistical tie for first place in the Republican primary right now.