Come on... An even slightly charitable reading of parents' comment would realize that they don't mean "belief" in the religious sense.
It's pretty safe to assume they are asking what the previously understood and accepted academic stance on the matter was, and are asking how the findings of this paper differ in a way to make it newsworthy.
It's pretty safe to assume they are asking what the previously understood and accepted academic stance on the matter was, and are asking how the findings of this paper differ in a way to make it newsworthy.