anybody out there?

I was hoping you would have more responses by now to this question, Jason. May I suggest that Mr. Tansley's childhood and background are relevant? He feels that he is something of an outsider (as does Lily Bricoe) because of his poverty. He doesn't own any "dress" clothes and must wear his ordinary clothes to the dinner. He must buy cheap tobacco. He has to watch every shilling he spends, and so is under stress while socializing with those of greater privilege. He is also referred to as the "little atheist." Martin Gorner has an essay wherein he discusses the difference, perhaps, between being a "little" atheist and being a kind of "mystical" atheist, as he would describe Woolf. Tansley announces his skepticism (relevant to the novel's discussion of British empiricism, especially David Hume, through Mr. Ramsay's preocuppation with the question of the subject-object relation.

But Tansley has not truly confronted the world because he is still so hampered by his sense of his own limitations and his insecurities. His need to impose himself on every situation marks his immaturity regarding the world and his inability to free himself from ego.

For another discussion of atheism (and art) in the novel, you might want to read Dr. Kenneth Tighe's essay on "Art and Atheism in To the Lighthouse." I have links to that essay from both the To the LIghthouse page and the links page on the website.