If there's one thing that's constant in this world - it's change (sorry, cliché).

So yes, likely a lot has changed since the researchers first looked into the subject at hand.

Pending on the target audience, they may or may not have been offended.

Sounds like it could be a bit of a subjective blog that you made open to interpretation and debate so yes likely people will have opposing sides.

My view?

There's nothing wrong with a healthy 'discussion' and being respectful of other's opinions.
That's quite fine by me. But open arguing on blogs - where it's disrespectful - is not okay.

Hopefully you have a way to block the members if they are causing you too much unrest.