ABSTRACT
Discussion of potential threats to the validity of an experiment and issues relating to philosophy of science may, at first blush, seem unrelated to statistics. And, in fact, some presentations of statistics may border on numerology-whereby certain rituals performed with a set of numbers are thought to produce meaningful conclusions, with the only responsibility for thought by the investigator being the need to avoid errors in the calculations. This nonthinking attitude is perhaps made more prevalent by the ready availability of computers and statistical software. For all their advantages in terms of computational speed and accuracy, these conveniences may mislead some into thinking that, because calculations are no longer an issue, there is nothing more to statistics than learning the syntax for your software or which options to "click." It thus becomes easier to avoid facing the central issue squarely: How do I defend my answers to the scientific questions of interest in this situation?
