I believe the word you're looking for is "understatement."
I know, that was the first word I used, but then it just didn't seem to carry the literary "weight" that I thought my point deserved.
I'm not sure anything has interested me more about human nature than the concept of a secular morality. I remember hearing Dr. Laura Schlesinger (yeah, I admit it, I used to listen) and it was her belief that history shows that it's just not possible. But, I'm convinced that there is no other possibility for humans to survive in a global society BUT with a secular morality (I guess the one other possibility would be one religion controlling the world). There's no other way for people of widely differing beliefs and morals to form any kind of meaningful bond or societal structure than with an agreement, truce, treaty, or whatever that would amount to a form of secular morality.