Part of my issue here is that saying I mentioned. I've experienced first-hand a couple of times where a mathematician tells me something is or isn't possible due to theory X or whatever, and then when practically applied, they've been wrong. So when someone is smug due to something in their head that doesn't have a practical demonstration, I'm suspicious from the outset.
Maths itself may be pure and correct, but it isn't the maths being smug at the dinner party :)
The trick is to first raise the topic of "alternative" therapies so that you can all have a go at being smug. It then becomes an amusing dinner-party contest in who can be the smuggest and no-one is offended, or at least, no-one present.
Maths itself may be pure and correct, but it isn't the maths being smug at the dinner party :)