Thank you Jay, this is such a great response, I especially liked this paragraph:

While it is very much true that disagreeing over the object-level causes shouldn't disqualify one from EA, I do agree that it is not completely separate from EA - that EA is not defined purely by its choice of causes, but neither does it stand fully apart from them. EA is, in a sense, both a question and an ideology, and trying to make sure the ideology part doesn't jump too far ahead of the question part is important. 

Also, to me I think EA is essentially about applying the scientific revolution to the realm of doing good (as a branch of science of sorts).