Religion is in decline – so why are people so well behaved? (UK)

[trotsky]

14. Perhaps because the writer is in a different country,

he (and his readers) are more aware of the support for those statements. It may have been more publicized there as part of a policy or current events discussion.

Or as you seem to believe, perhaps he just made it all up and there isn't a pervasive belief in most societies that religious belief is the basis of morality.