"If I had not been born, would MRI have existed? I don't think so. If Lauterbur had not been born? I would have gotten there. Eventually."
That's clearly an admission that he did not invent MRI. Nobel Prizes are not awarded to people who think they would have made the discovery eventually, had the actual discoverer not gotten there first.
I've been aware of the history of this controversy for the last 20 years. I have been in the field of magnetic resonance since 1977, and attended a seminar by Peter Mansfield in that year or 1978 (I forget), reporting some of the first MRI results. I succeeeded Lauterbur at SUNY Stony Brook, and took over his lab space (unfortunately, with far less success). I know most of the principals in the case, including the people with whom Lauterbur 'talked through' his ideas. I have no doubt of his originality and priority in this discovery.
Damadian's contribution was to show that tumors had different relaxation properties than surrounding tissue; however, he did not invent any imaging technique within the commonly understood meaning of the term. His best idea was to move a coil around the body to try to localize signals. The idea that magentic resonance distinguishes between tumors and healthy tissue undoubtedly motivated Lauterbur to go look for a way to image objects using magnetic resonance, but the imaging method itself was entirely his. Of course, MRIs are used for a whole host of other medical diagnostic purposes now, not merely tumors.
As for his Christianity; I doubt that very many of us in the field who discount his role in the invention of MRI (while acknowledging his early attempts to apply NMR to medicine) knew of Damadian's religion or his belief in Creationism. I certainly did not, and it has never come up in any discussion with my peers in which I participated.