Well there's a common view here in the West that the aim of the Buddhist path is to leave our bodies and our Earth for some other realm, or to cease to exist.

But Buddha before he became enlightened explored the possibility of meditations that take you to a mental state free from all the everyday suffering, states of pure bliss, and even more refined states and he mastered the most refined states of meditation taught at his time -  and decided this is not freedom from suffering, because all such states are temporary and dependent on conditions. So the path he taught is not one that leads us away from our everyday life to some other state of bliss.

And he also taught for several decades after he realized Nirvana, so it's not extinction in the sense of ceasing to exist as a person either.

Yet, he did teach that there is some truth we can come to see directly, that takes us to the very source of all our suffering and dissatisfaction and lets us see through it.

There's nothing special about rebirth except the endlessness of it. Also the sufferings that may be associated with birth, old age, sickness and death.

But the path isn't about trying to leave this cycle of existence to go somewhere else. That would just be a rebirth in another realm, so you would still be within the cycle of existence - and he taught that any such rebirth, even if it was millions of years of pure happiness, would not be a permanent solution. At some point it would come to an end and you are back where you started.

The main thing there is just to recognize that we don't know what happens when we die. Because the Buddhist teachings are about "come and see" and unless you can see for yourself what happens when you die, then the most truthful thing you can say is you don't know. So - of course many Buddhists believe that we take rebirth in different forms and may have many particular ideas about that, and nothign wrong with that at all. But it's good to recognize what it is you know, from direct understanding, and what it is you believe to be the case but can't know directly. And for most of us, rebirth is of that nature.  And Buddha taught also that there is no value in affirming belief in something you can't see to be true for yourself. So there is no creed.  Though most Buddhists do believe in rebirth, I do, you don't have to believe this to follow the Buddhist path, you just need an open mind.

The refuge ceremony that you can take as a way to "become a Buddhist" - of value as a way to dedicate yourself to the path - has no creed to assert to, for instance no requirement to say that you believe in rebirth or any such. You just say you commit to follow the path of the Buddha. Which is a path of awakening to the truth, whatever it might be.

"In the Buddhist tradition, the purpose of taking refuge is to awaken from confusion and associate oneself with wakefulness. Taking refuge is a matter of commitment and acceptance and, at the same time, of openness and freedom. By taking the refuge vow we commit ourselves to freedom."

See The Decision to Become a Buddhist by Trungpa Rinpoche.