> There is no respectable statistician who would ever draw a conclusion from data.
This is outright pedantry, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Scientific research is literally the process of drawing conclusions from data, after repeated measurement and control of independent variables.
No benefit of the doubt is needed, I made a true statement, albeit a subjective one about who I consider "respectable".
To me, statisticians analyze data and make objective statements about what they see. The process of scientific research is a different beast altogether. The objective statements about the data can only be used to inspire or support an argument. The correctness of the argument can only be recognized if the listener is convinced.
I'm not sure I follow your idea that correctness emerges from belief, but that could get epistemological quickly.
What I can address is that the role of a statistician is to interpret the statements made by data towards the objective (an unobtainable notion), not vice versa. I don't know any statistician, myself included, who isn't aware of the limitations of sampling, and thus the impossibility of dealing in objectivity -- hence why conclusions are often posited in speculative terms, such as probabilities or even hypotheses. Having the ability to reach those conclusions from the recorded observations of real phenomena is why statisticians tend to operate within subject matters.
Towards that end, I do agree that any statistician worth their salt would not take too much at face value on a two dimensional chart, and that this whole matter bears more investigation. But the idea that no respectable statisticians draw conclusions from data... I'm left to assume that you respect no statisticians.
This is outright pedantry, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Scientific research is literally the process of drawing conclusions from data, after repeated measurement and control of independent variables.