Many people supported Hitler and the Nazis out of fear of Bolshevism, it’s a form of a false dichotomy people often use when they reason poorly. “Better the devil you know” kind of reasoning, and then of course there are “lies for Jesus”, I think we have all encountered apologists using this rationale, it’s not hard to imagine some people lie to themselves as well.
If this life is an infinitesimally miniscule hop to an eternity in the hereafter, then of course it diminishes this life, how can it not.