The point is that many statistics are worse than 'damned lies' because they are made-up to prove a point. It's like a tobacco company paying for research that s

The point is that many statistics are worse than 'damned lies' because they are made-up to prove a point. It's like a tobacco company paying for research that shows nicotine is not addictive in 66% of people tested. I just made that up as an example. It's not true. So before you can have any faith in stats, you have to know the source and how the research was funded and by whom (this is before we even begin to talk about methodology flaws). If you do not know that then you cannot trust the stats at all. They are indeed worse than damned lies.