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Thomas Clarke, the founder of the Center for Naturalism, explored the concept of death in the paper titled Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity, published in 1994.
Clarke critiqued the common depiction of eternal oblivion as plunged into darkness.
He argued that when people, including non-religious individuals, envision their own death, they often imagine a future self experiencing perpetual silent darkness.
This, Clarke asserted, is a misconception because the absence of consciousness precludes any awareness of space or time.
Darkness, as an experience, necessitates consciousness to perceive it.
In true oblivion, there is an absence of experience altogether, for experience requires the presence of subjective self.