Perhaps it began and yet has still always been here. Your question implies that the answer is one or the other, that each choice is either true or not true. But if the universe was created, it was created from the outside, and who's to say that the outside follows the same rules as the inside? Perhaps on the outside all things are true, even false things.

If it was God (or even a god;the supposition still stands) that created the universe, I think I understand why. A boy dreams of being a man. A man dreams of being a king. A king dreams of being a god. What is it that gods dream of?

A god dreams of being a boy.

To be God is to be omnipotent, all-knowing and unknowable. That is to say, it is to be alone. I think God did all this hoping someone down here would get up there to keep him company (and if the Christians are right, someone did).