I don't think they are trying to diminish the value of statistics at all, but rather point out that it is easy to misunderstand or even deliberately abuse them.

I don't think they are trying to diminish the value of statistics at all, but rather point out that it is easy to misunderstand or even deliberately abuse them. This is more a warning to people without an understanding of statistics, because most people out there do not have a deep grasp of the fact that correlation does not imply causation.