Reply #2: Hmm, I see what you mean--

[vixengrl]

People attribute their self-willed achievements to God because they were told God would help them accomplish great things, when really, they were doing it on their own the whole time.

The problem with calling the phenomenon "Dumbo's magic feather", besides the Disney Corp's VHS fatwa over the past 25 yrs or so that has actually restricted familiarity with their classic films (which may have resulted in younger posters' not actually being familiar enough with the reference)--when we break the reference down semantically we have:

"Dumbo"--Not "Smarto" obviously. Are we trying to say believers are dumb?

"Magic"--don't you mean "supernatural" or "miraculous"? Aren't you trying to "dumb-down" other people's faith experience?

and--

"Feather"--Don't you mean "Father" as in "who art in heaven"?

Cheeses and crackers, if you want to spring that on people, you're asking for trouble. :evilgrin:


Maybe if you actually do spell the reference out by encapsulating the "Dumbo" story-line and the Aesopian moral, you can get away with it. It's unweildy and takes away from the appropos nature the reference should actually have, but it gives you cover in spelling out your philosophical meaning.