Then, like everything else that I require to believe something to be true, show your homework.

We are talking about personal conclusions regarding belief, even if there is such a homework rather than an inner realization, you as a different person may not come to the same conclusion.

If you take such a claim at face value, what's stopping your neighbour from saying you're a child molester and people accepting that at face value?

I don't see how a neighbor's slander is related to someone's personal conclusion to question of "Why is there something rather than nothing?". Last time I checked, "Is my neighbor a pedophile" isn't a philosophical question.

We demand evidence for a reason.

I demand evidence for this assertion.

In both Hawking's and Einstein's cases, they were wise enough to recognize there were things they didn't understand.

Yes, but you said people should do the legwork and "figure out what is", what these two figured out are similar but not the same thing.

That doesn't mean they accepted the doctrine or dogma of a particular church

And no one, neither you or me, mentioned accepting the doctrine or dogma of a particular church

merely left understanding open to broader possibilities like any decent scientist would

But you asserted people should do homework and figure something out, what is this thing?

Your comment seems to suggest they'd simply accept some "godlike" explanation at face value

Nothing in my comment even implies such a thing? Point was they figured out different things, one was open to possibilities, other was more of a believer to a similar concept. You said "some people prefer to be told what to believe instead of doing the legwork to figure out what is", what is this thing to figure out? What if someone does the legwork and concludes "Yep, there is a god"? Did they come to the wrong conclusion according to you or did the wrong legwork?

I am just saying you made an implication, that there is something to figure out and people should do the legwork for it. I am just curious what you figured out and what legwork did you put into that?