Asking someone to accept a premise for the sake of argument is one thing, telling them they must change their internal beliefs to participate in your class is another.
The professor could have handled it differently and chose not to. He has no right to make them change their worldview just to pass his class.
imho,
he has no ‘right’ to expose youth to his idiocies.
Alas, his crew will be in charge for a time . . . thankfully a very limited time.
But the horror of it will more than make up for the shortness of it.