There is an ancient story about the Buddha in which one of his followers tells him that he is fed up and quitting. The student complains that his teacher has taught him nothing about the nature of the Gods, Creation, or the Hereafter, The master replied, "I did not teach you those things because that is not what you need in order to reach enlightenment. What you need us to learn to accept change, and to cast out desire from your heart."

Buddhism has little to do with god and everything to do with what goes on inside our collective heads -

Buddhism is more about becoming enlightened rather than having your thoughts dictated to you.

I have a lot of respect for the Dalai Lama. He comes across as a man of great wisdom and love. However it's worth remembering that he represents one particular branch of Buddhism, in the same way that the pope represents a particular branch of Christianity or the Ayatollah, a particular form of Islam.
I consider myself to be a Buddhist -I.e.someone that trys to follow the teachings of Siddartha Goatama.
I have to say I don't give the existence or otherwise of god much thought. It doesn't seem hugely relevent. Reincarnation, to me seems improbable and mathematically unlikely but again not hugely relevent.
Karma, I absolutely accept. Not as some kind of universal system of balancing out justice -thats just new age hippy shit but it's simply cause and effect. You do something, it has an effect. Do something unskillful it has an unskillful effect, do something good it has a good effect. To me that's so obvious and so born out by experience that I struggle to understand why people don't grasp it.
So I don't follow the teachings because some external God figure will do something or the other if I don't. Nor am I concerned that I might get reborn as a cockroach. I follow them because experience shows me that right here, right now they benefit my life and by extension the people in my life. And if I'm walking about not killing, stealing, raping, slandering then there's a whole lot of other people benefitting bynot having to deal with the consequences of my unskillful actions (karma )
Bottom line is I don't care what you call it and whether you believe in magic folk in the sky what matters is what you do. Be good. Do good. It's not rocket science

Buddhism requires introspection and taking responsibility for ones own actions. Belief in a god may cause one to place that responsibility on the god and not the self.

My best understanding is that Buddhists do not believe in a creator god, that the universe is everlasting. When the Dalai Lama was asked about the Big Bang, he said “yes, but bang, bang, bang!” That said, many Buddhist cultures have a variety of deities and most western Buddhist communities are okay with members maintaining their family/childhood religious practices.

See but there is an implication here that you may mix a deity into Buddhism? Buddhism really is quite amorphous in its manifestations. There is such a thing as a Buddhist that is atheist with respect to Buddhist supernatural beliefs itself. They practice mortality denial in my opinion. As they imply some essence that persists beyond body death. Look here though. There is a reason for the disconnected emergences of revelation in humanity since before written history that everything is connected. Incessantly personifying the Universe. It is the most reasonable and rational position to take to be atheist. However, there is a reason humanity is saying this. It is not that I take a strong Biblical stance of a personified sky daddy in the puny omnipotence of wrath flexing His muscles with unfortunate little beings that couldn't put the puzzle pieces together to save themselves from an evil Creator. I don't believe faith is important here. What is important, is just that we know love here. Buddhism is very developed in this respect by giving you real tools to use and I myself practice meditation on the well-being of all sentient beings as a Buddhist might.

The BIG question though, is what are they practicing for ?

They are proposing a perpetual journey through multiple bodies, which has the majority of scientists running for the exits.

Funnily enough, the most academically rigorous study of that phenomenon might be done in the USA.

I recommend you watch this video all the way through ( its gets a bit light in some parts) to get a feel for this field of research -

The most cursory appraisal of Buddhism will reveal that it originated as a non-theistic, non-religious system. And that it has branched into many diverse, culturally-flavored branches in the past 2500 years--like any other enduring system.

As to the "helpfulness" of belief in a "God", I think this quote is bang on. Buddhism is about doing it for yourself: accepting responsibility; seeing, knowing, understanding for yourself. Installing yourself as the ultimate authority in your life. Hard to be your own ultimate authority with a God in the picture...

Buddhists do not worship the Buddha as a god. The word "buddha" means "awakened." The prince of a small kingdom in northeastern India named Siddhartha Gautama, after living the first 29 years of his life in extreme luxury, became aware of the pain and suffering of most lives, and abandoned his pampered existence to seek a way to relieve the suffering of the world. Through years of meditation, hardship and various ascetic practices he achieved the spiritual awareness (enlightenment) that releases one from the cycle of life, pain, death and rebirth. Buddhists revere him and his achievement, and through discipline, meditation and great effort, attempt to emulate him.

Absolutely!

It's perfectly compatible with Buddhism to be an atheist.

My understanding is that there is no god in Buddhism. Some people need a crutch to help them through their Buddhist journey?

It is my understanding that Buddhist do not believe in a god. Buddha is NOT a god. They believe in attaining enlightenment through certain stages. But who am I to question the Dalai Lama.