Isn't the Copernican/Cosmological principle at odds with a singularity representing the universe at time zero?

Looking for a cosmologist's explanation here. If our universe has no center and no edge, then how could there have been a primordial singularity in the first place? During the inflationary epoch would there not be a center point at t <= 0 (the singularity itself) and t > 0 (expansion outward upon the singularity's initial point) and a spherical universe expanding radially (as we view any other expansion such as the oft-used balloon ogy) with isotropic distribution as seen from the largest macro-scales? I can't wrap my head around there being no center and no edge if spacetime evolved in such a fashion. Is there a better ogy than the balloon out there? Also, was the singularity of Planck length (which seems to not be a constant after all given 'c' is said to be slowing down? Yikes! Explain!)? I can take any mathematical examples and explanations up to differential calculus and linear algebra, but I cannot understand tensors (yet?), sadly. Although, I still feel that I understand the basic concept of relativity (the universe behaving the same for all observers in any reference frame thus spacetime warps around the observer even at relativistic velocity to preserve physical behavior) if you need to explain with some higher concepts. Is the problem, instead, that we can't see the edge of our universe since spacetime expansion is accelerating such that we will never be able observe an edge without FTL travel/observation? Also, if dark matter-energy is holding our galaxies, individually, together then why are far-away galaxies which are not gravitationally bound to our own local group redshifting rather than also being held near by the dark forces which appear everywhere (or do they not appear in deep/cold/empty space)? Do we know what the cause of the expansion is? I would ume that gravity due to local clumps of matter-energy is somehow ripping apart (really pulling it like taffy) spacetime far out between galaxies or something?