It's not so much a bad idea, as he lacks imagination. It's perfectly reasonable to assume the earth stationary and the rest of the universe rotating around it. According to Jew Science, there is no absolute reference frame. Google Mach's principle for a very clever application of this idea w/ respect to gravity.
You can, in theory, claim that any object is the stationary center of the universe if you wanted to. Pluto. An asteroid. A point at the center of a supermassive black hole. What good does that do you though? It's all about perspective if Earth is SUPER important because we are living on it, then yes it must be the center of the universe. Case Closed, Science!