Poor Jason Gastrich

In the early 2000s, Dr. Jason Gastrich took on a bunch of atheists for some reason. I guess he had a radio show and did some informal debates. The following debates sound like they came from such a radio show and/or were just recordings of phone conversations he had with different people.

Dr. Gastrich is a baddddd debater and just does not seem to grasp basic forms of critical thinking and logic. I've never felt so douchey as I do when I say that about someone, but I don't think anyone would disagree with my assessment after hearing these debates, honestly.

Why this post? Well there are a bunch of his debates online which feature other debaters that I enjoy. He also sounds like your average YEC biblical literalist and some of these informal debates feature a well-versed atheist taking the time to dismantle basic apologetic and/or Creationist lines guys like Gastrich support. One final reason is that I am trying to find debates by the people who Luke M. wishes were able to debate WL Craig and see if they can hold up. Doug Kruegers' on the list and he has two interviews (only one is linked below, however) with Gastrich. Dan Barker is another person mentioned by Luke and he too is interviewed by Gastrich.

So here are mini-reviews to a couple of debates featuring Dr. Gastrich:


Dan Barker v Gastrich 2002 ( audio | video )
3.5 stars
They talk about biblical prophecies and stuff. Dr. Gastrich gets beaten up pretty bad - at one point he states that he would castrate himself if god told him to.

You hear a bit about Barker's background in this one, too. It's so interesting how sincere Barker is when he says that he really did love his life as a Christian. I could go on but in short it's this background that certainly makes Barker a bit more understanding in his debate with Gastrich in this one.
Technical: Low sound AQ

Douglas Kreuger v Gastrich 2003 ( audio 1, 2 and 3 )
4 stars CHECK
Again, Dr. Gastrich gets beaten up pretty badly. Doug is a little more concise in his tearing apart of Gastrich's position and he was really good at tearing down the accuracy of the Bible and Creationism.
Technical: Kreuger's audio is really low and some sort of weird machine's fan kept whizzing throughout the interview. 

Reggie Finely (The Infidel Guy) v Gastrich ( audio )
2.75 stars
Nothing too much of interest.  Dr. Gastrich is particularly snarky in this one.
Technical: Low AQ, again.

Eddie Tabash v Gastrich ( audio )
3 stars
Gastrich just doesn't seem to follow arguments. Like, he'll laugh at things that he thinks are absurd but really aren't and assumes that his incredulity is enough to counter an argument. It seems like he just gathers up a bunch of canned responses from other apologists/creationists and goes with them. He also isn't very organized. Poor Eddie, he seems to only get debates with lameos like Gastrich, Friel or Slick. He apparently debated Frank Turek who isn't the best apologist but knows how to work a crowd and parrot WL Craig, at least.
Technical: Little better audio.

James Randi v Gastrich ( audio TBP )
2.75 stars
To be fair I barely remember this one. But the AQ is bad, it is shorter than the others mentioned so far and hey, if I can't remember it, it must not have been all that interesting. Randi is pretty flippant in this one and that's usually how he rolls when in a debate-like interview.
Technical: Poor AQ

"So why this post, seriously?" You all ask. Well, I haven't posted in a bit and some debates don't deserve their own separate posts, imo. I might do this with other debates, as well. Who knows?

Also, when I first heard the IG and Randi debates I thought that Gastrich was like 18. He's not. He wasn't, either. From what I can tell, he graduated high school in 1992. Assuming he was 18 in 1992, that would make him at least 28 in the earliest debates I have listed here. To be fair, I am 28 and sound like a 15 year old so I hope this last comment doesn't just seem to be completely mean-spirited.

(Revised 6-11-2015)