'You might think you can tell me that you are just as imaginative, creative and poetic as a free thinking atheist, but you would be wrong'.

That sounds to me like a very closed mind indeed.

If your imagination, creativity and poetry are driven, or significantly influenced, by your religion, then 'tis you who has the closed mind. Your imagination is severely ringfenced. You won't be able to see past a perverted view of the world and the universe, with all its diversity and beauty staring you in the face, purportedly created by a rather abject, inexplicable being. That is false and it can't help but close off that part of your mind that should be free to contemplate nature as the source of edification through joy - and knowledge. You're adding an extraneous layer that is a bit like putting a very beautiful duvet over your loudspeakers when you're listening to Mozart. So beguiling in itself but, ultimately, serving to do nothing save hide the truth.