Is Sweden Lucifer's red herring?

Saw an interesting article in Salon about
Scandinavia. It describes a place that many red-state Americans have trouble wrapping their brains around: an advanced and just society of people who don't believe in God.

This reminded me of an interesting science fiction novel I read before. In the book, a group of scientists explored an alien world populated by dinosaur-like beings. The aliens have a society that appear to be ideal - their world is without war, crime, ignorance and poverty. They aliens also have no notion of God or an afterlife. One of the scientists in the expedition, who came from a Catholic background, recommended that the entire planet be quarantined, because he believed, get this, that this planet was created by Satan to deceive Christians. There are many of those from the Abrahamic tradition who believe that all morality is derived from religion, and so it is inconceivable that a society of peace, logic, and understanding can exist in the complete absence of God.

Of course, the idea that monotheism gave birth to morality is hardly new. I don't think it will go away, even if the rest of the world turns into Sweden. After all, apologetic scholarship has had thousands of years of development.