At the micro level there are infinitely many paths the photon follows and most of them involve it traveling considerably faster than the speed of light. While t

At the micro level there are infinitely many paths the photon follows and most of them involve it traveling considerably faster than the speed of light. While they cancel out, if you omit them then the calculations don’t give correct results, so they’re happening inasmuch as anything can be said to happen scientifically. If you want to object that that contradicts GR well there is a Nobel prize or ten waiting for whoever squares that circle.