[imh]

In physics they can do experiments to get highly confident results. In medicine, economics, and any other science dealing with people, data is much harder to collect and there are harder ethics involved. We could learn so much if we simply performed controlled experiments on the global economy, politics be damned! Or if we could just make the professionals play more soccer matches in a controlled setting (but just like a pro match in every other regard!). Or if we were more aggressive with human trials of drugs. But we can't. Scientists in some fields are stuck with data sets where they'll never get 5 sigma confidence. Does that mean they should stop using statistics? Hell no. There are still very useful things to be learned. It's just much harder to get right.