Created, Not Coded

Why This Book?

It started at the kitchen table, with a whiny 6-year-old asking "Why do you even need to go to Rome?"

My husband and I were going to the Builder's AI Forum at the Pontifical Gregorian University to talk about Catholic theology and AI. I distilled the answer down to the main question I know is going to be on people's minds: "Because some people are going to think computers are human and we need to figure out how to tell the world that humans are unique."

I know what the Church teaches — every person is made in the image and likeness of God and no algorithm can replicate the human soul. But after the conference and reviewing so many children's books, I couldn't find a book that helped lay that foundation for my kids.

So I started writing one.

Created, Not Coded is the book I wish I could've handed my kids that night. It brings families together around two big ideas the Church has been teaching for centuries — imago Dei and telos — and pairs them with stories of real Catholic scientists who used their God-given gifts to explore the world. It brings families something I couldn't find anywhere: a shared language, rooted in the Church, for the conversations happening at kitchen tables everywhere.