You attempt to tie morality with sustaining forward growth. WTF?!?!? How would you make that connection? Did God kill the roman empire for it's lack of morals or was it the forward march of other civilizations? Did Spanish dominance over South America fail because Spanish morality failed or was it the incursion of other countries into Spanish trade routes?
You just used God killing off various stages of history on a morality clause as evidence of a religious moral superiority. If that was the case then the Muslims wouldn't exist. They'd all be carrying bibles and wearing crosses around their necks. God had nothing to do with it. Fear had everything to do with it. If the Islamic fundamentalists attack us in a direct all out frontal way we would march right through them and destroy their religiously motivated asses. 50 years from now they'd have George Bush Senior high schools all over the mid-east.
Fear of their own demise is the only thing that holds the Muslim back ... in spite of their Allah demanding that they attack us. They take pot shots at us like 9/11, or make little onesy-twosey bombings like the several thwarted attempts in the last five years. Do they mount up and come on full bore? Nope. Even though their Allah commands them to attack and destroy us it is fear ... not religion ... that holds them back.
It is fear of getting waxed that's the base of our morality today. Dress it up and put that good ol' religious Sunday go to meetin' suit on it, but fear and self preservation are the reality that we learn as kids. When you first grew teeth you didn't stop bitting mommy in the leg because you love Jesus ... it was because momma put the fear of her in your lil butt. When you had to have your chores done or else dad kicked your ass it wasn't your love of God that put the haste in your step ... it was fear of getting your butt kicked. When you decided not to steal from the corner supermarket anymore it wasn't God speaking to your spiritual growth, it was because getting caught stealing that candy bar meant your ass. When you first got laid it wasn't love of God that drove your lust it was your shmeckle. College? Marriage? God is a concept, while self preservation and personal advancement are a reality.