Non-contingent tales of bubbles and potatoes

For further comment on the article linking evidence-based reasoning and fascism which touched off my article, see this post at Stats, whence comes the following insightful passage:

And yet, one presumes that the authors of this paper – much like those who will defend its contents – engage in a form of life that explicitly contradicts the critical principles they presently avow: they wash their hands after using the bathroom, they boil water, they turn ignition keys on machines that are driven by the principles of internal combustion (cars) and not by the will to power or supernatural force, they balance their checkbooks, look both ways before crossing the road, cook chicken thoroughly – and expect the earth to keep revolving around the sun.

Even if they do all these things merely because they hold them as contingent beliefs, they still hold them as contingent beliefs for good reasons: if the bubbles don’t appear in the water, the potato will not cook.

There are also some good links to what other people have been saying about the article in question.