Sociologist define religion as a cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provides a sense of meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all encompassing, and super natural(Durkheim 1965, orig.1912;Berger 1967;Wuthnow 1988). Theism is known as a belief in one or more supernatural deities and is often mistaken as the basics to most religions but, this isn’t always the case. For example, Buddhism holds the belief in the presence and existence of spiritual forces rather than a particular god. Sociologists are not concerned whether religious beliefs are true or false. Sociologists are especially concerned with the social organization of religion. Sociologists often view religion as a major source of social solidarity, because religions often provide their believers with a common set of norms and values (Essentials of sociology p.344 ch.12). According to anthropologist, there have probably been about one hundred thousand religions throughout human history (Hadden 1997a). Tracing their roots back to the Anabaptist movement of the 16th century, the Amish people are a tightly knit religious and ethnic group. (http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/AmishHistoryTimeline.html). The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. "Anabaptist" means "one who baptizes again"—a reference to those who had been baptized as infants, but later adopted a belief in "believer's baptism", and then let themselves again be baptized as adults. An early leader in the Anabaptist religion, Menno Simmons began the Mennonite sect. then later the Amish movement takes its name from Jakob Ammann, a Swiss Mennonite leader, who lived from 1656–1730 (www.religioustolerance.org/amish.htm.). Ammann favored stronger church discipline, including a more rigid practice of shunning, the social exclusion of excommunicated members. This type of strict literalism, on this issue, as well as others, brought about a division among the Mennonites of Southern Germany, the Alsace and Switzerland in 1693, and led to separation of those who sided with Ammann. The Swiss Anabaptism from this point on was split into two very similar ways of life. The individuals following Amman went by the Amish or Amish Mennonite. The others eventually became known as the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. The Roman Catholic Church traces its beginning back to the original church which was established at Pentecost in AD 30 (http://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/where-and-when-did-the-catholicism-begin/). The Roman Catholic Church contends that its origin is the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in approximately A.D. 30. The Catholic Church proclaims itself to be the church that Jesus Christ died for, the church that was established and built by the apostles. For the first 280 years of Christian history, Christianity was banned by the Roman Empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted. This changed after the “conversion” of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine “legalized” Christianity with the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313. Later, in A.D. 325, Constantine called the Council of Nicea in an attempt to unify Christianity (http://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/where-and-when-did-the-catholicism-begin/). Constantine envisioned Christianity as a religion that could unite the Roman Empire, which at that time was beginning to fragment and divide (catholic.org). The leader of the Catholic Church is known as the pope. The pope is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The importance of the Roman bishop is largely derived from his role as the traditional successor to Saint Peter, to whom Jesus gave the keys of Heaven and the powers of "binding and loosing," naming him as the "rock" upon which the church would be built. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, succeeding
