Steve you are ignoring the fact that both Mozart and Bach were writing for the Church because that was all there was to disseminate their creativity and it was their bread and butter. Michelangelo was forcibly made to finish the Sistine Chapels by the Pope of his day, for example.

I wasn't ignoring it. The other thing I was trying not to do was to diss religion as a source of great art. But great art is possible without religion, in the same way that good people are possible without their having been soaked in Christianity all their lives. I just question the assertion, where made, that great art arises directly as a consequence of divine inspiration. Religious subject matter might well appeal to the artist and be fertile ground for them to bring out their best. Bach's Mass in B minor, his Passions and his many church cantatas are among his finest music, no doubt about it (though I'm passionately fond of the "48", the Goldberg Variations and the other keyboard works as well), though I'd contend that the material itself is what inspired him rather than any "hand of God".   

I've been to many churches in Europe, France, Hungary et. al. and I find them
opulent, overbearing in their artistic statements and simply not really inspiring but more pretentious. I'll take Rodin's sculpture any day over Sacré Coeur de Montmartre or the grandiose pomposity of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. European churches are overrated and have done more to stifle honest creativity than any other institutions with the exception of the churches in the U.S.

Well, you know what a rabid atheist I am, but when I see old churches and cathedrals I see them, first, as part of my heritage (whether I like it or not!) and second, of their time. I don't possess your broad-brush, though I know what you mean about opulence and overbearing. Some cathedrals just turn me off. In the UK, Liverpool's Anglican cathedral, Exeter and Salisbury leave me cold (talking here about the insides), whereas I loved Hereford and the "Mersey Funnel". I haven't been to those Paris ones but if you're ever in Prague I defy you to dislike Tyn Church. Delving into what makes us respond subjectively the way we do as individuals to any art is a whole nother ball game, and, in my case, God don't come into it!