I never considered incorporating "atheistic" belief systems into my religious views before this class. However that was just my closed-mindedness. I was only looking to other religions as having any spiritual insight worth incorporating into my personal belief system.

Buddhism seems to walk that line like a tightrope! Ultimately I agree with Rick, it is a religion, and its followers are as devout as they are enlightened and at their core they contain many fundamental beliefs of all the major religions. For example, dont hurt people/sentient beings, help when you can, be generous, seek to better yourself, and so on.

In fact I think Buddhism is so compatible with my own version of Catholicism/Christianity that I have been practicing it without knowing it for many years.

I also believe that God can be eternal and changing. One does not preclude the other. Besides, eternity is relative and when your talking about a omnipotent being anything is possible, by definition. Its a little bit of a cop-out but consider that compared to an ant, it cant even begin to conceive of what our human lives are like, what we are capable of. We would seem eternal to them. We can pour a cup of water and create a vast flood that covers their whole world, or drop a bit of food and feed them for months.

I think you can be a Buddhist and Atheist or a Buddhist and have a belief in a number of other religions. Personally the only thing I disagree with are the inequality for women and not eating meat! I've tried to eat non-animal protein and it just never works for long.