Man Blows Up Dog That ‘Has The Devil’ In Him, Thinks World Is Ending

[appleannie1]

I wish I were making this story up, but unfortunately, I’m not.

In one of the most bizarre acts I have ever personally heard of, a man from Skamania County, Washington, a rural part of the state close to the Oregon border, blew up his dog, a labrador retriever named ‘Cabella’ because his ex-girlfriend had given it to him and “put the devil in it.”

Christopher Dillingham, 45, allegedly attached an explosive device to his dog and detonated it around 4 a.m. Sunday outside his home.
Dillingham, according to KOIN, was preparing for the Rapture. Apparently, that included making an explosive device out of black powder used for fireworks, and throwing furniture and other belongings out of a broken window in his house. When asked why he was throwing objects out of his house, Dillingham told police that he believed “the souls of demons” were inside the metal objects in the house.

http://progressivepopulist.org/2013/08/07/man-blows-up-dog-that-has-the-devil-in-him-thinks-world-is-ending-video/

[Turbineguy]

1. This man should be

on a school board somewhere in Texas!

[appleannie1]

2. LOL

[kentauros]

10. And yet,

he's in the (desirable and liberal) Pacific Northwest.

Yep. Y'all have crazies just like everywhere else in the country. I say y'all should embrace these fine folks so you don't feel left out

[Turbineguy]

17. I'm not suggesting that

Texas deserves that. I was more a comment on recent news about education reforms in Texas.

[rug]

3. 'As for his exgirlfriend who gave him the supposedly devil-filled dog? That is Dillingham’s cousin.'

[Blue Owl]

4. Get this guy in a YMCA shower with Rick Santorum

Just imagine how comfortable Ricky would be with him and not some liberal.

[xfundy]

5. They could compare notes, and talk about

other thangs containing demons that blowed up real good.

[sigmasix]

6. this poor man is probably suffering

with some form of severe mental illness. I hope his insurance covers this sort of thing- because if it doesn't he could end up un-treated and homeless. Why are victims of serious illnesses like cancer taken seriously, while victims of serious mental illness are made fun of?
This gentleman's humanity and dignity will be stripped from him by mental illness. He has already been humiliated through this event. America owes it's citizens better.

[trotsky]

9. Probably, but can we be sure?

Can anyone prove that the devil WASN'T in his dog? Can anyone know for sure whether he was acting out of sincere religious belief, or not?

[cbayer]

12. If he had metastatic cancer that caused him to act erratically, I don't think

there would be a story like this posted. But because it is most likely psychiatric, it's ok to publish it, laugh at it and even try to make some lame connection to it having to do something with religion.

But then, it's always easiest to make fun of those who are most marginalized because they can rarely hit back.

Thank you so much for your post.

[Ecumenist]

7. I wonder if he's got a problem with METH? This seems a little indicative ...

of a methamphetamine problem.

[cbayer]

13. It's possible.

Whatever it is, he is in serious need of attention and intervention.

[dimbear]

8. Too violent for my taste, like the horrible fate that overtook the Gadarene swine:

far more gentle was the medieval custom of merely excommunicating offending beasts, such as locusts and birds. They didn't seem to suffer much from it at all.

[cbayer]

11. Oh,NO! Another psychiatrically ill person who identifies with religion.

That does it! All religion should be immediately outlawed! Then we will finally be free of all mental illness.

[okasha]

14. I wish the medical profession would do away with the distinction

between physical and psychiatric illness. If one is "mentally ill," one's brain chemistry is out of whack, just as one's pancreas is out of whack if one is diabetic. That's why medication works in both cases.

[cbayer]

18. While I agree with you wholeheartedly, it's not the medical profession

that keeps this separation going. It's the culture with all it's prejudices and marginalization of people with psychiatric disorders.

The psychiatric community works very hard to have these illness seen as just another form of physical illness and advances are being made.

But the general public still has a lot of fear and misunderstanding, and that leads to stigmatization.

[Lordquinton]

16. Or a religious person does something undesierable

Therefore they must have a mental illness.

[cbayer]

19. Please, this is much more than undesirable.

This guy is clearly suffering from some serious illness and/or substance abuse.

Religious and non-religious people get psychiatric disorders. And psychiatric patients often are drawn to religion to try and make sense out of experiences that are making absolutely no sense to them.

Hey, there's a guy who killed his wife and posted pictures of it on Facebook! Guess what, he's ill and it has nothing to do with religion.

[Lordquinton]

20. Is that your professional medical opinion?

There is the possibility that he actually believes this stuff without any crazy stuff, I don't know much about it, but the story could go either way.

[cbayer]

21. The story could not go either way.

This is so far from typical religiously related behavior that it is an illness.

He may believe it, but one of the criteria for delusional thinking is that you firmly hold on to a belief that is not shared by those around you or for which there is strong contradictory evidence.

He was delusional, but you can call it just religious if it makes you feel better.

[Lordquinton]

22. Religion manifests in many ways

When it's benign then it's the word of god, when it's harmful, it's an illness.

I think this is horrible, and despise anyone who harms animals.

There is a lot in religious teachings that state, quite plainly, that animals are there for our use, and whatever we choose. The bible gives us dominion over them, it's not a far leap to this tragedy when you read the bible in whole and take it all as the word of god.

Kinda telling when actually performing what is in the holy book is automatically labeled as a mental illness.

[cbayer]

23. Yes, there are religious groups that teach that animals are there for human use,

but I don't remember ever hearing that they were there to blow up.

You can try 5 ways to sunday to someone put this in the spectrum of "normal" religious behavior, but that is ludicrous, frankly.

Professionals in the psychiatric field are quite adept at distinguishing when religion is just religion and when a person with mental illness has developed religious delusions or has otherwise incorporated religion into their illness.

Frankly, I am sick of people trying to equate religiosity with mental illness. I think you might be quite offended if I said that all atheists are de facto narcissistic and mentally unstable people who are compensating for their total inability to relate to other people by creating the delusion that they know something for a fact that is really unknowable.

I don't think that by the way.

I think you might also be offended if I started posting articles about people who do heinous things who have no religion and taking the position that their lack of religion is responsible for their behavior.

I don't think that either by the way.

[Lordquinton]

24. By religious groups

You mean The big three, which are groups, but that kinda misrepresents.

No, this was not normal behavior, but like you, I am sick of people trying to equivocate mental illness with beliefs. I am also sick of people trying to label anything that looks bad to a religion as a mental illness.

This is a very extreme example, and he probably does have issues that fed this behaviors, I would say drugs, not mental illness, but that's my armchair, non-professional view (like yours).

If you actually lived biblicaly, you would be labeled as mentally ill, because the bible tells you to do a lot of terrible things, (Like that "Kill them all, not just the men, but the women, and the children. Like animals, slaughter them like animals" passage, which is also part of god's word (yes, I use the bible a lot, that's because I know it the best, and don't want to fill ten pages to assuage pedantic claims of "What about X religion&quot That's my point.

Atheism has no commandments about ruling over animals, or obeying without question or reason, so there is no weight to any of the other claims you made. Christianity does have all that in it's book, so you have to take that into account.

[cbayer]

25. Have you ever seen the Dr. Laura letter about what you would have to do

if you followed the bible literally? It's hilarious, and I agree with you completely that if you did those things, you would most certainly be labeled as rather severely mentally ill, if not outright jailed.

It is an interesting phenomenon that some people in the throes of psychosis will develop religious themes. I think it is their attempt to make sense out of the insensible. Religion lends itself to this, so many grab on to it. I would reject the notion, however, that religious people are more likely to exhibit psychotic behavior or that religion drives people to act bizarrely, like blowing up their dogs. I have never seen a shred of evidence that would support that.

[trotsky]

26. Depending on how literally one takes the bible,

Jesus himself cast demons into pigs, and then forced them into the sea, murdering them.

Can you explain, cbayer, how that BIBLE STORY, which some people believe literally happened, is fundamentally different than what this believer did?

Or, alternatively, would you like to claim that Jesus' behavior in that incident was so far outside "normal" religious behavior that he was mentally ill?

I don't expect an answer, but it sure would help bolster your credibility.

[hrmjustin]

15. What a horrible story!

[gopiscrap]

27. OMG I am sure this WWJD