Religion aside, how can something have always been?

First of all, much of your confusion is based on you conflating the concepts of "how" and "why". Everything needs a how, since the universe is dynamic in nature. Physics has made some progress on that to point (things get a bit fuzzy at the Big Bang). But "why" implicitly refers to purpose. It's not a logical necessity that things have a purpose. If I asked you why you ask "why", I'm recognizing as a being with purpose behind the question. The answer is, presumably, that you as an intelligent creature with goals have got a curious itch and need it salved. You need seek no analog to such purpose for the universe as a whole, unless you've implicity assumed there is an intelligence behind it.