“Agree with my ideas without question, or fail the class!” strikes you as a reasonable first day of a class?
Ah, okay, see that description is wildly different than the one presented in the OP. No, I cannot imagine a college or university, public or private, that would allow something like that to take place.
So…write " ’ God is dead ’ " inside quotes. You aren’t declaring it to be so; you’re quoting someone else.
Sheesh. If that’s all it takes to pass a class, I’ll write " ’ I blow dead penguins for nickels ’ " 100 times on the chalkboard.
The premise breaks down rather quickly, anyone smart enough to get into college is smart enough to know they can withdraw from a class in the first week without receive a grade.
Yes, it was quite apparent after the first minutes of the trailer that this was a proselytizing movie in which the evil atheistic professor would be laid figuratively in the dust by the righteous young Christian, who I’m sure at the last moment would triumphantly prove the existence of God by some miracle or other, forcing the professor to acknowledge the emptiness of his existence. Praise the Lord!
As for colleges being allowed to do this didn’t you know they were hotbeds of godlessness, homosexuality, anti-Americanism and libertinism? They have a special executive order from the President allowing them to do anything they please to Christians. 
In the bowels and basements, they teach … (two-click rule applied):
One click E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N … shhhhh
Two points:
I don’t interpret the situation that way. Students are instructed to write down a phrase, but that is all. What they make of that instruction could be interesting basis for discussion.
(And, frankly, a lot of professors have exactly the attitude you describe. But that’s not the point I was trying to make.)
…and now that I’ve had the chance to watch the trailer, I’d just repeat myself.
I think you’ve nailed it.
ETA: Am I the only one who thinks it’s kind of funny to see Hercules arguing that there are no gods?
Oh, I doubt he’ll be presented as evil or even seriously atheistic - just embittered and facing a crisis of faith, to be pitied and helped by a good Christian to find his way back out of the darkness. Note the line is “God is dead”, not “God is a myth” or “God is fake”.
Dean Cain’s character, though… obviously evil.
Aye, that’s the “why do you hate god” line leading up to the revelation… the little “r” one, not the big “R” one, btw.
Would an astronomy professor be allowed to have anti-astrology requirements?
Would a physics professor be allowed to have anti-alchemy requirements?
Would a medical professor be allowed to have anti-faith-healing requirements?
I can’t imagine even in a theology class students being required to do this.
Same with the OP.
I can’t imagine even a tenured professor getting away with something like that.
Per the OP, it’s a philosophy class. Did you miss that? Here:
It was in the first sentence of the OP, so I can understand why you might have missed it.
I’m not sure if you mean the situation as presented in the trailer, or a similar-but-distinct spin-off…but here’s how it goes in the trailer:
Professor: I would like to bypass senseless debate altogether, and jump to the conclusion that every sophomore is already aware of: there is no god. All I require from each of you is that you fill in the papers I’ve just given you with three little words: god is dead.
Student: I can’t do what you want, I’m a Christian.
Professor: If you cannot bring yourself to admit that god is dead, then you will need to defend the antithesis.
He sure seems to be asking for a sincere declaration, there, and the price of non-compliance is a project for this student and this student only. As for the stakes, from the plot summary:
Yep, the old trope that atheists don’t exist, only misotheists.
Heck, the best fictional atheists are the ones who shrug indifferently, not the ones who rant passionately.
I was referring to the Post -
There is nothing here about professing any belief, but only writing down a specific phrase.
I suppose arguably it’s a 3rd Commandment violation (2nd in some versions) about taking God’s name in vain and whatnot, even if one doesn’t actually believe the claim.
Still, the involvement of that Duck Dynasty guy pretty much rules out any possibility that the issue will be left unresolved or even slightly ambiguous. Not only will God not be dead by the end of this flick, all the characters will be trying to buy Him lunch.
As a rule, students can appeal grades at most colleges, and the scenario described would constitute valid grounds for a grade appeal if the professor actually followed through with the threat to fail the student. Without the threat to beat students with the grading stick, everything the professor did would be allowed, though very, very unwise for anyone without tenure to attempt.
There’s also this:
…which is part of the scenario.
I was privileged to see an advanced screening of this movie.
I won’t spoil anything too important, but the post credits scene shows a chicken strutting quite triumphantly away from a heavily beshitted chess board. Very poignant, IMO.
That chicken’s name? Albert Einstein.
As to the question in the OP, I’m reminded of the first day of one of my Bio classes in college. The professor announced that he had absolutely no interest in hearing any YEC nonsense either in class, or outside of class. A rather cute young woman next to me raised her hand and took a deep breath. Although he had his back mostly turned to us, the professor then emphasized, “This is a required course for Biology majors, and I will not hesitate to fail you.” The young woman lowered her hand without saying anything.
Although I am ordinarily not a fan of winning an argument via intimidation, I definitely appreciated the amount of sheer information that professor packed into each class. That would not have been possible had he allowed himself to get embroiled in pointless debates three times a week.
Anyway, and FWIW, this is as close a scenario as I’ve ever heard of to the one in the trailer.