Oh my. Not true DMcG. That is not the purpose of statistics at all. It is, in fact a way of making value judgements in a totally NON-subjective way. For instance, if 30 people take a new drug, and 30 people with the same condition do not, and 12 of the drug-takers improve, while 8 of the non-drug-takers improve, does this result indicate that the drug works? What if the test is redone by another scientist (as it most certainly should be), and the results are 11 out of 37 drug-taker improvements vs. 9 out of 32 non-drug-takers - does this result support the first study?

Or how about this one (the answer will boggle your mind):

If you are tested for a disease that occurs in 0.1% of the population using a test that gives the correct result 90% of the time, what is the probability that you have the disease? Hint - it's darn small!

Yes, statistics have been used by the unscrupulous or ill-informed to "prove" untrue hypotheses, but the best defense against this is to become educated regarding the proper use of statistics, not to dismiss this powerful tool of objectivity.

If someone hits their thumb with a hammer, don't throw away yours and try to push the nails in with your fingers!

I strongly recommend the following book to the scientst and (especially) non-scientist alike -

Statistical Tricks and Traps: An Illustrated Guide to the Misuses of Statistics by Ennis C. Almer

Read this, and the shroud is easily removed in most cases.