Does 神的存在是一个不以人们的主观意志为转移的客观事实 use the 以...为 grammar construct?

Question

I read this sentence in the book 游子吟:

神的存在是一个不以人们的主观意志为转移的客观事实

I'm unclear about what "以" and "为" are doing here. I Googled to see if "以...为" is a common construct; this page says that you can say "以 A 为 B", which means "use/take A as B".

Assuming this sentence is using the same construct, then A would be 人们的主观意志 ("man's subjective will") and B is "转移", right? However, the page I linked to seems to indicate that A and B must be nouns. I looked up "转移" and the main definitions are almost all verbs. Google Translate tells me that it can also mean "metastasis", but that's a medical term, so I'm not sure if that's the correct translation.

My current best attempt at a translation is:

The existence of God is an objective fact, which we can't use man's subjective will to change.

Is this sentence using "以...为"? If so, am I correctly identifying A and B? And if so, does that mean B can also be a verb? Or is my understanding completely off?

Answer 1

I think “为” is misused here. It could be clearer if remove 为 or replace it with "而". The meaning is just what @AurusHuang provided.

Answer 2

I have a slightly different version of translation:

The existence of God is objective, which can't be changed by people's will.

Although “以……为” has existed in Chinese language for milleniums, its meaning differs as the language evolves. Specifically, in your example, “以A为B” can be explained as "B happens for the reason of A". However, this is quite a unique usage that doesn't coincide the common rule. Most of the time, this structure means "regard A as B" or "see A as B".

Answer 3

Here 以A为B is to be taken as "to do B by means of A". (I take 为 to be the same as in 为了 here)

And I think you translated it just fine.

Answer 4

about the usage of 以﹒為﹒, have a look of 國語辭典 (in traditional chinese)

the basic is 以 a 為 b (^以.為), e.g.: 以退為進

roughly: by means of (以) retreat (退), for the purpose of (為) promotion (進).